Hyphen started in 2014 on the spacebattles pokemon fic thread.
Well, no. Let me try again.
One day in early 2014, I was waiting at a bus stop to go home and had a sudden thought.
'Hey!' said my brain. 'Wouldn't it be cool as fuck if ___________________________________________________?'
Yes, I agreed with myself. That would be cool as fuck. Man, I wish someone would write it. Maybe I could suggest it to someone?
I got home, opened the SB pokemon fic idea thread, and hovered my hands over the keyboard. (Figuratively. This did not literally happen as I describe it) But, something stayed my hand. A piece of knowledge that had been ingrained into me by my deep attention to the Familiar of Zero fanfic ideas thread.
Absolutely nobody gives a god damn shit about one liners.
'hey but waht if lousie summoned uuhhhhhhhh fuckin idunno ganondorf???'
...and?
The fact is thus. Throwing out a single line of premise with no surrounding narrative is completely dumb. You're asking someone to make something whole cloth out of one thread, and nobody is going to do that for you.
Nobody would do it for me. It would be glossed over and forgotten in about negative twelve minutes.
I stayed my hand and thought about it. How do I get the cool thing to happen?
Well, that would be easy. just write a scene and plonk it in. I grinned and opened the reply box, because I wrote chapters in the fucking forum reply box at that time like a complete fool.
But yet again, I hesitated. A new question had arisen.
How do I make people give a damn about the cool scene?
I paused. I sighed.
'I'm going to have to write a whole fucking basckstory to it, aren't I?'
On May 10th, 2014, I posted this post to the fic idea thread. It was a portent to come, because the thread had just happened to come to a parallel train of thought.
Four or so chapters later, I made my own thread in creative writing and began posting chapters there., copying the story to SV when that became A Thing.
And so on, and so forth.
There were leaps and hurdles; I went pretty fast early on, but hit a snag when in september of 2015 my dad died, and I promptly stopped writing for the rest of the year, though I think I was four months into no chapter by then anyway?
Sometime after that, I settled into a completely accidental rhythm of posting a chapter every three or so months.
Um.
That's pretty much the origin and history of the story. I guess. Man I thought I'd have more to say about the end, there.
Anyway, this means a lot to me, personally.
I'm not a guy who's done well in life. I don't want to get too personal with this, so all I'll say is that I have absolutely zero things to be proud of, in an accomplishment sense.
Except for this thing. Dinky little story about a pokemon becoming a pokemon trainer. Something significant that I can point at and say 'yes, I did all of that by myself. It is my accomplishment, my achievement, and it is something that people can actually admire me for. Even if I get fucking Isekai'd tomorrow, this is something that proves that I made a contibution to the world.'
So.
Thank you.
Everyone, really. For taking the time to read something that I always think isn't any good, and then telling me 'No, you fool, you're wrong. this is actually pretty good.'
It's an addicting feeling, acknowledgement. Even now i have to sort of stop myself from begging for more comments. (Seriously how does some completely god awfully written worm fanfic get like twelve pages of discussion when I get like. Three? and a third of them are just me, replying to the comments.) [Yes I know there are multple reasons; length of time between updates, uncommon fandom, excetera, it doesnt stop the jealousy.] {Where are my omakes, mom!?} [Shush, Derm. It is mature thankful time now.] Shit I ended up meta begging anyway WHOOPS-
And that's why, hell or high water, I'll never stop writing this, to, well. to give back to everyone who enjoys it so much, and also to stroke my massive fucking ego god damn. Love it. Love the love. Got a case of latent narcissism a mile wide here fuck.
Wait wasn't this supposed to be heartwarming?
Fuck it I just got off a new years shift, I'm tired.
Thanks you for enjoying my story.
AND NOW FOR THE COMPLETELY UNNECCESSARY AVATAR TRIVIA TIME? (Skip to the bottom if you don't care.)
Answering such questions as: What on this god forsaken earth is that hideous wizard in your profile.
It's me.
Let's be more specific!
Way back in December of 2010, a guy called Gatleos made a 'Roll to Dodge' play by post game on the Bay12games Forums, which is the Dwarf Fortress official forum.
I applied, creating a 'tech world' guy nobody gives a shit about, and a 'fantasy world' guy who became a forum wide meme for years.
Enter; Dermonster Hellbinder. A shitty wizard specializing in Elementalism and Summoning!
I used these abilities to hilarious effect, with such antics as:
Making a swarm of rats eat the castle guards
Drying out the hull of our boat so hard that it disintegrated in the middle of the ocean.
Formed a whirlpool next to another boat (that happened to be passing by the first one, which we boarded). Almost sinking that one and throwing the Plot Girl and her Plot Sword into the depths.
Five in a row: Exploding a seagull and nailing a dockmaster in the eye with shrapnel, boiling the resultant regiment of guards alive in their armor, fused together two other players and a swordfish, and then just making a big ol ball of pulsing flesh, which exploded.
Set the entire elven forest on fire, and then teleporting to the boss arena in such a manner that I spliced their unicorn with a giant rat, creating the menacing UNI-RAT
Much later, after a lot of travel, I left my companions in the snow to meet the extremely plot iportant goblin leader we had been traveling to meet, and when I came face to face with him, (accidentally) exploded the entire top of the tower, murdering everyone inside.
Unleashed the Necronomicon upon the world,
and, finally, got posessed by, and then ate, the main demon antagonist from the first portion of the game.
Then it died. but my name lived on in the forum as a synonym for mass chaos and plot destruction for ages to come. it was glorious.
This is the final graphic that the GM made of my character:
Here, is the avatar that my good friend Dexexe made at some point during or after that, that I have been using for the past TEN YEARS.
That guy has been 'me' online for so long that it has become an embodiment of my presence. It is my internet SI, my personification, a creature I cannot be parted with.
He is the shittiest wizard to ever whiz, and this decade he's getting a fuckin' art upgrade.
Presenting Dermonster Hellbinder, 2020 SUPER NIGHTMARE EDITION!
Gods his color scheme is awful. But he is me, and I love him.
Go check out my friend Dex's quest over here. It's 100% made of art, and it stars a giant walking mushroom! He's a great dude who deserves some love.
Thanks again for reading my story, and maybe even enjoying the escapades of my avatar.
Sorry for the double-toast but I wrote an omake and figured the notification might be worthwhile.
Omake: Hyphen Not(?)-21B: Not-Oblivious
If May wasn't (or isn't?) too oblivious, her own view of most of Chapter 21 might go something like this:
May wasn't stupid.
Contrary to what Roxanne clearly believed (the pretentious egghead), school and grades weren't everything. For May, they were basically nothing. Changing schools every other year, ending up in a completely different place with a completely different curriculum, had played havoc on the quality of her education. She was always the weird new kid who nobody knew. She had huge gaps in what was supposed to be basic knowledge, and her classmates always thought it was funny. Little bastards.
Slowly shaking off her bad mood, May wandered through Rustboro City. Alone and lost in thought, she finally had the time to really consider all the strangeness that Astra had brought into her life. It was obvious that Astra was hiding something. Something big, maybe, something earth-shattering. Maybe even something that would turn the world on its head if it got out.
It wasn't like May didn't notice the little things.
Little things like the way Astra's voice didn't echo like everyone else's did, no matter where she was or how loud she shouted, even when she wasn't supposedly throwing her voice. Like how ridiculously fucking interested that Steven Stone asshole had been in Astra, and how Astra recoiled under his gaze in particular even before they had the slightest clue how strong he was. Like how Astra had lived with her grandpa and his neighbors in a cave deep in the forest where she'd never even heard of, no, never even conceived of the fundamental concepts of bikes, or elevators, or plumbing, or hotel etiquette, or coffee, or muffins, but knew everything about making a fire and cooking berry soup and sleeping under the stars and all that outdoorsy stuff.
Little things like how Astra learned to play a violin in only a single day. Like how Astra clearly remembered the appearance of a living Armaldo despite no such thing existing for thousands of years. Like how Astra got a massive dizzy spell (and probably a migrane) upon trying to figure out where she'd seen it.
Little things like how Astra wasn't so much surprised by May's tale of Wally on route 102 as she was afraid of it. Like how Astra froze up when the brand-new rare pokemon Ralts was mentioned, but her eyes went distant and dull, as if she was reliving something horrible. Like how Astra tried to dissuade Brendan from looking too much for that rare Pokemon. Like how much Astra had panicked when May had tossed some empty Poke-Balls (and a Super Potion) to her in the slowest, most telegraphed lob in history, all after a verbal warning. "Surprised me a little," my ass!
Little things like how startled Astra was by May's mention of the Psychic type, followed by indignance when May said they were kinda weird. Like how she asked if May had a type (which was still absolutely hilarious). Like how horrified and upset Astra was at the talk of the giant Mightyena... the truck-sized Dark-type hellhound that could have effortlessly slaughtered almost any Psychic-type in the forest. Like how even the mention of any member of that line made Astra nervous. Like how Poochyena had been unexpectedly hostile to Astra at first, and even now just ignored her most of the time.
Little things like how Astra had let slip that her grandpa couldn't just walk into a store and buy something, then immediately tried to distract May with a race (and succeeded, damn my competitive streak). Like how Astra honestly, really and truly thought that human babies came from eggs, like Pokemon babies.
Little things like how Astra had panicked almost immediately after obtaining her first Badge, and had hidden in the bathroom for half of May's fight. Like the way May had tried to clap Astra on the shoulder as they left the Rustboro Gym and her hand came down around something solid several inches above where Astra's shoulder appeared to be (which had never happened before). Like the way Astra had panicked and shoved her hand off and hoped she hadn't noticed. Like the way Astra seemingly began growing rapidly, at least an inch just while she was in the bathroom, and would presumably keep growing rapidly until she levelled off at the correct height.
May noticed all of these little things, and many more besides. She was, as she told Astra, good at sniffing out bullshit, and Astra was full of it.
May just didn't really care that much.
Astra was her friend. One of the only two friends she had in the world now, after her dad had decided to move "one last time" that likely wouldn't be the last time after all. She wouldn't put it past him to un-retire and try to throw away her entire life again even when he said he wouldn't, but May was a trainer now. She could live on her own now. She wasn't leaving Brendan and Astra. Not now and not ever.
It had hurt, that first evening, when Astra didn't trust May enough to stop covering up completely around her. Those towels were obviously not comfortable. It shouldn't have hurt — it made sense, they'd only known each other for a few hours — but it still hurt, because they were friends. May had said she wouldn't look at Astra differently, and Astra didn't trust her; a little albinism wasn't that big of a deal between friends, right? But maybe Astra had friends before who said that and then reacted poorly. Or, she couldn't help but think now, maybe it was something more than a little albinism. Something like having green hair and big red eyes and not much of a nose and skin so pale it was white. Like a rare Pokemon.
May didn't really care enough about the reasons to try to dig up the secret in its entirety, so she hadn't actually put things together on purpose, content to ignore the problem and pretend it didn't exist if it wasn't staring her right in the face. She'd rather just think of Astra as her weird friend. It hadn't been until several hours into her walk, dredging through memories and trying to sort out what had happened in her life in what regions and when, that everything suddenly came together. One of Unova's most sought-after rare Pokemon (that her dad had ranted about losing to) was called Zorua: an illusionist Pokemon that could disguise itself as anything, even a human, and (though she wasn't sure she was remembering correctly) might even be able to talk like one. Its evolution, whatever it was called, was even more accomplished.
Everything fell into place all at once. It all made perfect sense, too much sense, and May couldn't keep herself from thinking about it now that she had nothing else going on to grab her attention. She began mumbling a steady stream of swears as she failed to repress it.
Astra was a Pokemon.
A Pokemon. A Ralts, or presumably whatever that evolved into. Something that could be caught in a ball and carried around on her belt. An animal.
...Well, humans are kind of animals too, right? She thought she remembered a science class saying something like that at some point... probably. In Kalos, maybe? So, really, they weren't that different.
Right?
...
Yeah. Astra was her friend, first and foremost.
A Pokemon.
...
Her friend.
Her Pokemon friend.
...
Whatever. She was still Astra. Still her friend. It didn't really matter. It shouldn't.
Well, sorta. It was kind of a big deal... but... only because it meant May would need to pay more attention to some possible problems, right? Well, she didn't have to, but what kind of shitty friend would she be if she didn't look out for Astra? Yeah, they pissed each other off sometimes, they were both a bit weird, but nothing was perfect. Shit, should I tell Brendan? What if he tells his dad? Would Birch try to catch her? Or should I let Brendan figure it out himself, and risk him freaking out on Astra in person? Dammit! She resolved to not touch that until it looked like it was a certainty. Maybe it wouldn't happen and she wouldn't have to deal with it.
When May really thought about what happened after Astra's battlematch with Roxanne, really stopped and thought about it, she realized what had probably happened. May had been hurt, at first, by Astra's absence, that total lack of the Pokemonher friend in the audience to cheer her on in the first half of the match. But Astra had returned and eagerly made up for lost time, so May had let it go as the intestinal distress she claimed it was.
Astra must have evolved, she realized now. Evolved in a bathroom stall, in a gym where she was surrounded by people who had just seen her in an absolutely riveting battle and were expecting her to come out of that bathroom looking about the same as she did when she went in. Can Pokemon evolve just from watching battles? From just giving orders? It didn't really matter.
Astra had been a bit more nervous since getting back from the bathroom, so she obviously knew she was taking a huge risk by coming back. She'd bumped her apparent height up an inch or two sometime in there as well, and that was a risk, too. If Astra grew too fast, people (like May) might start asking pointed questions.
If May had been in that situation... if May had been a Pokemon illusionist whose disguise no longer matched her body, she might have panicked. She might have run away. She might have left behind everything she cared about (again) and tried to start over. She might have abandoned her friends.
Astra didn't run. Astra didn't abandon her.
May needed time to process all of this, to come to terms with Astra's secret (she's a Pokemon), but May wouldn't abandon Astra. She couldn't. They'd known each other for less than a week, but it already felt more like a year or two. It was an odd friendship, but deep down inside, in some long-forgotten cobweb-filled corner of her soul that she would never admit existed, May knew they needed each other.
Astra needed May to help her with those parts of city life and human life that she wouldn't have any way to know about (but May was not going to give her Pokemon friend The Talk, for that way lay only trauma. Brendan could fucking deal with it). May needed Astra to help her get by in the wild, making fires and camping out and cooking soup and... well, maybe not keeping clean, Astra sucked at that of course, but everything else. It was a practical need, she might rationalize.
But even deeper in that forsaken corner of her soul, May knew she needed someone who wouldn't abandon her. Someone who wouldn't disappear and never return when something went wrong. Someone who would still be her friend, even if it was risky and not always very fun. And May knew that Astra needed someone, anyone, to lean on and seek comfort from. May wasn't the touchy-feely type, hadn't been for a long time, but Astra kind of seemed to be. May could maybe learn to tolerate that for Astra's sake.
So abandoning her Pokemon friend wasn't an option. There. She didn't really need to think about it much. She could just keep going as she had been and everything would be fine.
Still wandering aimlessly around the city, May had only just started to wonder what to do if Astra started talking about her secret, when suddenly the sky cracked open.
May wasn't sure how long the explosion of ruinous energy lasted. It was a hell of a light show, a pillar reaching clear through the sky, but it just felt wrong on some fundamental level. The way it left a sickly patch of yellow in the blue skies visible through the missing clouds... it was like a scar in the world itself.
When it began, she'd almost immediately started running, not away from it, but towards it, shoving her way through the crowds of gawkers that emerged out of nowhere into the streets in a panic, dodging cars that were drifting to a stop. She slowed down, though, when she really got a good look at the energy and the scar it left behind. Doesn't really look Psychic-type... maybe it's Dark? Maybe Ghost? Yeah, there's no way Astra made that when she was trying out new Evolution moves... right?
Even as the crowds thickened in the streets, she pressed on, her body on autopilot as her mind ran through possibilities, all efforts at repressing her conclusions abandoned in the heat of the moment. Astra was afraid of Dark-types... well, of Poochyena and Mightyena, they were basically the only common Dark-types in the forest. Astra wouldn't be afraid of Dark-types if her neighbors or her grandpa could defend against them, right? Astra's grandpa told her lots of stories, therefore he had to be experienced and wise, therefore he had to be at least one stage evolved, since one badge was apparently enough experience to do that for Astra. He would have told Astra that they'd get less scary someday if he could stop them, therefore Astra getting a secondary Dark-type upon evolving was ludicrous and bore no further thinking about. She's too nice for that anyway.
The crowd in the streets was so thick it was getting harder and harder to force her way through it, sirens blaring as panic took hold of the unthinking masses. Vehicles stalled and stopped every which way on the roads and in some cases even ended up on the sidewalks. Idiots.
What about a secondary Ghost-type? Psychic is weak to Ghost? I think? But... well... Astra being a Ghost-type didn't seem right either. Ghosts like pranks, right? Astra's too nice. Again. Yeah, May didn't think Astra could ever be the boogeyman that went bump in the night. Oh, she had the potential, but she wasn't keen on using it much. She only pranked May with it because May was prying, probably.
Moves were the strongest when used by a Pokemon of the same type, and that looked like a really insanely powerful Dark-type or Ghost-type move, therefore, it must have been used by a Dark-type or a Ghost-type. Astra probably wasn't Dark-type or Ghost-type, therefore, Astra probably didn't cause that explosion. Bam. Logic. So calm the fuck down. And go back to ignoring the thought that Astra was a Pokemon.
...She's probably scared shitless of this. May started picking up the pace at which she shoved through the chaotic throngs of people freaking out in the streets. I told her I'd see her at the hotel, so if she's freaking out, that's where she'll go to find me. Probably. I hope. If Astra wasn't there, May wasn't sure where she'd even begin to look.
The crowd continued to hinder her progress as various first responders tried to get the unruly masses out of the way of their vehicles. Astra doesn't want to be touched, since that'll mess up her size illusion if someone notices. She might be hiding somewhere. There were too many hiding places, though, and there was no way May could search them all in any reasonable span of time. Hotel it is!
It took May almost a half-hour to finally get back to the hotel, a half-hour of pushing, jostling, shoving, and generally forcing her way through the crowds of people who were still too busy completely losing their shit to do anything but get in the way. Still mumbling curses to herself at their idiocy, May fumbled her keys for a few moments and shoved open the door.
Her heart leapt into her throat, unbidden. Panic immediately set in again as the first thing she processed about the room was that she didn't see Astra. "Fuck fuck where-"
Her words cut off as she saw the lump under the bed. That's her, right? It fucking better be her. Does she know I'm here? Dammit! Don't panic, May Astra, don't panic. It's her. It's gotta be her. Even so, she could feel the doubt creeping in as she walked over and the lump didn't move.
At the last moment, she hesitated, steeling herself for possible disappointment or shock. Just in case. Because it has to be her. It has to be. May pulled the sheets up from the pillow-side end of the lump.
Oh thank Arceus, "There you are," May breathed out, letting go of half of her panicked tension even as Astra buried her face deeper in a pillow. The fact that Astra was obviously not happy kept the other half of it around.
No response. Uh... shit. "You okay?"
The sniffle she got in response told her that the answer was no. Fuck.
"Right." Guess I'm winging it. "It was the, uh, giant explosion thing, yeah? Lot of people getting worked up over it, and all. Kind of a crazy lightshow, from where I was. Heh. Um." I'm so bad at this.
She wasn't close enough to get hurt... I think? Better check. "You weren't anywhere near that, right?"
The way Astra huffed into the pillow was either a good sign, or a really, really bad one. Could she have caused it after all? No, nonononono, even if maybe she did, not touching that. It doesn't matter. Not touching it.
Astra finally found where her words went, speaking with her face still stuffed in the pillow. "It was scary. It was really scary..."
Some traitorous part of May's mind pointed out the total lack of muffle in the voice, but she ignored it, instead sighing in resignation as her shoulders slumped. "Yeah. Yeah it was, wasn't it?"
Her fault or not, it was totally Dark or Ghost type. It scared the hell out of her either way. Doesn't matter. Not touching that. Fuck... winging it! Steeling herself against the nervous awkwardness, she climbed onto the bed and pulled herself under the covers next to her Pokemon friend.
She looks like shit. Giving what she really hoped was a reassuring smile as their eyes met, May tried to find the right thing to say. "Hey. Got room in here for one more?" Internally, she cursed her awkwardness. It's a bit late to ask permi-
"Woah—hey!" May yelped, reflexively leaning away and tensing up, frozen, as Astra suddenly began using her instead of the pillow for wrapping around and sobbing into. She's shaking so much. "Erk..."
Slowly, May forced herself to acknowledge and recognize that nothing bad was happening to her... that Astra was her friend and wouldn't abandon her... that it was okay to let Astra get close. That was what Astra needed right now. To be close to someone. And right now I'm the only one she has. Astra wouldn't abandon her, and she wouldn't abandon Astra. One arm was in a really awkward spot, but as May hesitantly kind-of relaxed, she brought her other arm up around Astra, patting her on the back like parents who weren't Dad usually did when they tried to comfort their kids. Still, the silence was awkward. What did people say in these situations?
"Um. There, there?" Nailed it. Pffff, yeah, right... dammit.
Astra snorted as she finally started to release her death-grip on May. Maybe May hadn't been meant to hear Astra's mutter, but no other sounds reached them here. There was nothing else to hear. "You're really bad at this."
"Oh, well fuck you too," May muttered back without really thinking. Dammit, Astra! Dammit, me!
Astra laughed.
...okay, that works, I'll take it. Mission accomplished!
Astra still didn't let go entirely, but the silence was more comfortable this time, now that May wasn't desperately searching for whatever she needed to say to make things better.
Astra finally spoke again. "I'm sorry."
Internally, May noped right out of that. Oh no, we are not doing that feelings crap now. Out loud, though, she said, "It's fine. Big fuckoff explosion blows up a quarter of the forest outside town, anyone'd be scared. Though, uh." Can we think about something else now? "It's kind of boring in here. If you want, we could order a movie or something." As the smell of dirty PokemonAstra belatedly reached her nose, she amended her statement. "Maybe after a shower."
"A movie?" Astra tilted her head in that quizzical way that many animals (including humans) did when they were puzzled.
"Yeah!" May felt a little bit defensive, but internally told herself off as she forced the feeling away. She's just wondering which movie, May, she doesn't think it's a dumb idea. Calm the fuck down and explain. "A new Datney one came out recently, and I was kind of interested. It's called Treasure Galaxy, and it's about—"
"No, no, I mean, what's a movie?"
May opened her mouth to respond incredulously before she remembered that Astra grew up in the wild as a Pokemon. How the fuck do I even begin to explain this? Fuck it, she'll understand when she sees it. But she doesn't now, and that means she's never seen... May felt her eyes narrow as she declared her inner thoughts out loud. "Tomorrow I am going to rent the entire King of the Amulet trilogy and we are going to binge the fuck out of it."
Astra still sounded confused. "Okay?" She'll like 'em. Hard to beat the classics.
"Go take a shower, I'll figure the movie out."
While Astra got up and headed into the bathroom and started taking a shower, May ordered the movie and mentally prepared herself for Astra to come out wrapped up in most of the towels again. We really gotta get you another cloak, Astra. Fuck, did she not have enough money for a new one in any of the shops we walked by? Her traitorous imagination briefly entertained the idea of trying to get Astra to not wrap herself up completely tonight, to relax more around May, but thankfully the rest of her brain shot that down. Hell no. Act like it's not there, May. It's not there. There's nothing wrong with her.
"—Authorities are still investigating the site of the massive explosion yesterday evening, but no cause has yet been—"
Click.
"—tellin' you it's a sign of the end times! Look up at that big ugly bruise in the air and tell me that things are gonna be okay when the sky itself is bleedin'!"
Click.
"—although there were no reported human injuries, the destruction has elicited concern for the local Pokemon population—"
Click.
"—got a close look before the police cordoned the area off, it was the spookiest thing I ever saw. Entire forest got churned up by the wind, yeah, but at the epicenter? Sand. It was all just... sand, far as I could see. Real quiet too, could barely hear myself breathe."
"That must have been very disconcerting."
"No shit. Felt like the skin was gonna crawl off my back closer I got. Something's wrong there, now. Sun was still up but it was like the light didn't reach all the way, and it was cold. If my heart wasn't thumping in my ears I could've sworn that I'd died."
Click-thwip.
The small TV in the hotel's eating area went dark. Astra stared listlessly at the now black screen, chin resting on a folded arm. Across the table, May set the remote down, shaking her head. She took another bite of the enormous muffin she had bought from the breakfast service.
There were a few other TV's set around the spacious dining hall, still blaring whatever channel those nearby deemed entertaining enough to watch, but no other guests had chosen to sit in their little corner, preferring their own solitude. The morning sunlight shone through the window next to them, a cheery greeting from the sun to harken a new day. Or it would, were there not a new, if unseen, obstruction to dampen the mood.
"Man," May said, swallowing the chunk of pastry. "I saw the whole thing and I still can't believe that happened. Didn't even know you could do that to the sky. Wonder what it was..."
Astra looked down at her own muffin and took a nibble. "... I just hope it doesn't happen again." she said, quietly.
"Mmm. Yeah, I suppose. Still," May pressed, "You must be a little curious too, right? What do you think? Secret government project? Aliens? Maybe it was one of those mythical Pokemon that only show up every thousand years or so." May took another bite, considering the options. "Bet if I could catch something that could do that, I could beat the entire league in five minutes flat."
Astra winced. "I'd really rather not think about it," she deferred. The movie and a dreamless night's sleep had done well to allow Astra to... not forget, but distance herself from the event. Still, she would really rather not have it shoved into her face every other minute. Dwelling on what she had done, what she had felt— no, she was far better off doing something else. Anything else.
"Tch, you're no fun," May muttered, taking off another chunk off her muffin.
Astra just shrugged, turning her attention to her own pastry. It was a delicious new flavor— pecan?— but she couldn't seem to work up the energy to feel enthused about it. "You said we were going to binge a 'trilogy' today?" she questioned, sitting up. Maybe another movie would lift her spirits.
"Mmm!" May swallowed the rest of her muffin, then shook her head. "Uh-uh. Puttin' that plan on pause, for now," she said, to Astra's disappointment. "We can save that for when Brendan finally gets his ass to town. It'll go better with a bigger audience. Actually, speaking of..." Frowning, May pulled out her pokedex and tapped at it. She scowled.
"Still no texts?" she questioned, incredulous, "I thought he was gonna beat us here. What gives?"
"Maybe it's taking him longer than he thought it would?" Astra hazarded. She hoped not; if he kept searching around Route 102 he could risk becoming a danger to the village. "Or... maybe he is here, but he doesn't know we are?"
May blinked at Astra, as if the thought had never occurred to her. "So you think that he thinks..." she said, slowly.
"That we're still on our way," Astra finished, polishing off the last of her muffin.
May was silent for a moment, then scowled. "That stupid— oh, I am going to put the hurt on him if he actually thought that weak-ass forest would take me more than a few days. Not even one message!"
"Well, it's not like you messaged him either," Astra pointed out.
"Wh— that's not— you— " May sputtered, red faced. She coughed, then fixed Astra with a glare. "Well I could say the same about you!" She accused.
"Hey, I didn't even know it could do that until yesterday!" Astra retorted, folding her arms. Apparently there was a certain number combination assigned to each pokedex, or phones in general. She didn't know why Brendan hadn't asked for hers. Did he not want it? She wished she had known enough to ask him for his. "I still don't really know how it works, and you've known about—" She hesitated, "Texting?— for forever. Don't pin this on me!"
"I— okay yeah, but— look you can't always just—" May struggled to find the words, gesticulating wildly with every failed retort. She huffed, blowing a stray bang out of her face. "Forget it," she grumbled, sliding to her feet. "I need some air."
Astra got to her feet as well, but paused, running the conversation back in her mind. Maybe she had been a bit too accusatory. It wasn't May's fault that Astra didn't know about phones, or that Brendan hadn't contacted May or gotten her own number. Still, someone had to reach out first, and Astra couldn't. She'd have to bring it up again in a bit, see about finally finding out where Brendan was.
May paused at the door long enough for Astra to catch up, then the two of them headed out into the sunshine. The sky above was free of clouds, save for a few wisps of white scattered about. People walked the streets, but despite the bright, sunny day, the atmosphere was one of barely concealed worry and anxiety, so thick that Astra could practically taste it.
A glance skyward revealed the cause: in the distance, an ugly dark yellow blotch stained the sky above the forest. Astra could barely see it from this far away, but even that small glimpse sent a shudder down her spine. They stared at it a moment more before May grunted and turned away. Astra followed after, fidgeting and consciously stopping herself from looking back.
"So, if we aren't watching those movies, what are we doing?" Astra asked, looking around at the various storefronts that littered the street.
"See the sights, pick some fights, grab some bites, say goodnight," May recited, shrugging. "The four rites of tourism. It's what I usually do when I move somewhere new. There's usually a special spot I try to visit first, unless the town we move to is landlocked. Fortunately," she said, smiling, "Rustboro happens to have one as well! Hung out there yesterday until the whole, uh, thing went down."
"Oh?" Astra asked, curious. "A special spot? What is it?"
"I think I'll keep it a surprise until we get there," May winked, grinning. "Trust me, it's pretty awesome. Just gotta get to the docks."
"The docks, huh?" Astra pondered the location. What could be at the docks? A boat, maybe? "Well," she began smiling back at May. "I look forward to it! It must be pretty special if you enjoy it that much."
"Of course it is!" May boasted, grinning right back. "I'm the one who's showing it to you, anything would be awesome if I'm there!"
The smell of salt filled the air as they neared the western side of the city, and the titanic golden towers of the Devon Corporation loomed ahead of them. Astra gazed at the gleaming spires in wonder. The largest house back home had been her own, carved into a cliffside as it was, and the skyscraper towered over both it and the trees, living up to its name aptly. How had humanity even built these behemoths? Was it stone or some other, more arcane material she couldn't even conceive of? Why did they even need something that tall?
May probably wouldn't be much help in that regard, Astra mused. If she couldn't even make a simple fire, Astra doubted she knew the specifics of building construction. Well, maybe she wasn't giving her enough credit. She had been at least mildly helpful with everything else so far, and this was a human building. Might as well ask.
"Hey," Astra said, catching Mays attention. "What are all these buildings made of, anyway? Back home it was all wood or stone."
May stared at her for a half-second, then rolled her eyes and snorted. "I really shouldn't even be surprised, and yet here I am," she muttered. "I think it's... concrete, glass, steel, and plaster?" she guessed, waving a hand at the tower.
Astra tilted her head. "What's concrete?"
"Fuck, I dunno! I think there's like, gravel? Maybe?" May hazarded. "I'm not a damn architect, Astra."
"Mm. Yeah, fair enough. Thanks!" It was more than she started with, at least. Another few things to find answers to. Maybe Brendan would know more? Astra eyed May speculatively. Speaking of...
"So!" she chimed, grinning. "Are you gonna text Brendan yet or not?"
May twitched, then shot a half-hearted glare at Astra. "He should be the one texting me," she muttered, and it sounded oddly petulant.
"I don't think he's going to," Astra observed. "I mean, he hasn't so far. I'd like to say that he will, but it's already been half a week and I want to see more movies!" She gave May an encouraging grin. "Come on, just ask him where he is already!"
"It's not that easy, you know," May grumbled, staring down at her pokedex. She hesitated. Typed out a sentence. Two. She paused, added a third, then scowled and deleted the whole thing.
Focusing intently, May typed out a new text. Her eyes flicked to the side, and she bit her lip. She added another. "Fuck, no, no. Just. Come on—" May growled, deleting it again.
Astra tilted her head. Was it really that hard? "If you're having trouble, maybe just say: 'Hey Brendan, me and our super cool friend Astra made it to Rustboro, are you here yet?'" she suggested, peeking at the blank screen.
May snatched the pokedex away, scowling at Astra. "I can't just say that, It has to be better! Something like... hm." Looking back at her pokedex, May tapped at it's buttons in a frenzy, pausing only to backtrack when she made a mistake.
"Hah!" she grinned, tapping it one last time. "That should do it! Now we just gotta wait."
"What did you send?" Astra asked, trying to see the screen again. "Let me see!"
"Nu-uh," May denied, holding the device just out of reach. "Only way you get to see my chat history is if—urk!"
A man ran straight between the pair, cutting May's declaration short and knocking the teen aside. "Out of the way, brats!" a familiar voice shouted.
"Oh no!" Astra exclaimed, rushing to Mays' side. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," May grunted, as Astra helped her to her feet. "Ass hurts a little, though. Hey, watch where you're going you— you!?"
Astra turned to look, then had to double take. Growing ever distant, the distinct blue form of the Aqua grunt from yesterday morning sprinted down the street, clutching something in his arms.
"That guy!?" Astra said, incredulous. "What's he doing here!?"
"Thief!" Another voice hollered, as if answering her question. "Scoundrel! Stop! Please! That is Devon property!"
From the Devon towers, another familiar figure dressed in a green suit hurtled down the street, screaming and moaning to the world. It was the portly employee Astra and May had met yesterday, and whom they had defended from the Aqua grunt.
"This guy too?" May said, bewildered. "Didn't we just deal with these two yesterday? What is going on?"
The Devon employee sprinted down the street, panting and wheezing. Looking up, he spotted Astra and May. Recognition and hope crossed his face in rapid succession, and he jogged up to them, gasping for air.
"You two!" he cried, red faced. "Thank goodness! Listen, that Aqua scoundrel snuck inside Devon headquarters and stole some extremely valuable property! All of the police are still investigating that damned blast site in the forest, they won't make it in time. Please, I need you to stop him!"
Astra grimaced at the man's pleading tone. It wasn't like she didn't want to help him; his desperation was evident enough, and there was precedent. But after all that she had gone through recently, she was sure she was straddling the knife's edge of 'normalcy'. Did she really want to go through even more trouble so soon?
On the other hand, she could literally feel the hope radiating off of him as he looked at them. They had beaten the grunt rather handily before, after all. Could she really look this man in the eye and tell him 'no', especially when she was the only one who could help?
Astra wavered for a heartbeat, then sighed and shared a glance with May. "Well, we did say we would kick their ass if they showed up again," she said, lightly.
"That's all the excuse I need." May slammed a fist into her palm and smirked. "Looks like this asshole needs to be reminded that nobody gets to shove me around and get away with it! COME ON, JACKASS, I'VE GOT A SHOE JUST BEGGING TO GET SHOVED DOWN YOUR THROAT!"
Whooping, May about faced and dashed down the street, chasing the Aqua thug with wild abandon. Astra followed close after, cloak billowing in the wind. "We'll get what he stole right back to you!" she called out to the Devon employee. "That's a promise!"
"Please be careful!" he shouted back, voice fading into the distance. "He's a menace!"
Rushing after the thug, Astra and May ducked and dodged around bewildered pedestrians and cyclists. The streets weren't so crowded as to be impassable, but more often than not Astra found herself wasting precious seconds darting around a surprised businessman. The Aqua grunt had no such preoccupations, shoving aside any who stood in his way.
"Keep your eyes peeled!" May ordered, spinning past a woman with an umbrella. "We need to keep on his trail even if he books it down a side street!"
"Look, he's slowing down a bit! I don't think he knows we're on to him yet," Astra said, huffing as the grunt made a hard left. "I don't know if he's going anywhere in particular. Does he have an escape route? Does he even have a plan?"
"Fuck if I know, but I'm not losing him!" May shouted, skidding around the corner. "Look, he's heading straight for a park! This is our chance!"
The park ahead was a generous plot of land covered with lush grass. Instead of trees, it dedicated most of its space to large playground equipment. It also happened to be mostly deserted. Free of pesky, obstructing pedestrians, Astra and May began to speed up, gradually catching up to the Aqua thief.
"Hey!" May yelled, catching the thug's attention. "Stop running, you coward!"
The grunt jerked, then threw a glance and a curse over his shoulder. "Shit, you two again!? Shove off, you brats! This briefcase is Team Aqua's now!" he yelled, clutching said briefcase closer to his chest.
"No way!" Astra rebuked with a glare. The briefcase again? What in the world was in that thing? Nothing this guy should have, that's for sure. "We know you stole it! We already beat you once; give it back or we'll pound you into the dirt again!"
"After all I went through to get this thing? Hell no, the Boss would keelhaul me!" The grunt shouted back, snarling. "And he's a hell of a lot scarier than you two! You'll have to pry it out of my hands, you snot nose little twerps!"
"You asked for it!" May roared, pulling a pokeball out of her bag. "Poochyena, take that guy down!"
Poochyena appeared in a flash of red light, already dashing ahead. The grunt took a quick look over his shoulder and the blood drained from his face. Fueled by terror, he burst into an all out sprint, outpacing the viciously barking dog by a hair's breadth.
Screams and shouts erupted from all sides as they burst out of the park and back into the sidewalk. Poochyena was giving it his all, barking up a most severe promise of pain and wrath, but, much to Astra's quiet, and May's very, very vocal consternation, the grunt seemed to be ever so slowly gaining ground.
He wasn't going to give up, was he? Astra narrowed her eyes, breathing labored. She couldn't keep this up for much longer, and even at a full speed, the grunt seemed to have no intention of slowing down. She exhaled. Fine. If he wasn't going to go down, she would just have to give him a little push. Concealing her hand in her robe, Astra reached out and—
"Oh, fuck this!" The grunt screamed, fumbling at his belt. "Zubat, use supersonic!"
Another flash of light revealed a small, wildly fluttering blue and purple creature with two wings, two narrow legs, large ears, no eyes, and a gaping mouth that took up half of its head. It flipped around and landed on its masters collar. Turning to Poochyena, the Zubat reared back and screamed.
Poochyena abruptly dropped, howling like mad, and a split second later the supremely high pitched shriek hit Astra. Pain erupted in her ears, and she cried out as the world tilted and swayed around her. The power in her hand backfired and recoiled inside her head as her concentration abruptly vanished.
Astra fell to the ground, clutching at her ears. May, too, had stopped in her tracks to protect her hearing from the sudden, shrieking onslaught.
"Hah!" The Aqua grunt jeered, sprinting away from the scene. "That'll teach you to mess with Team Aqua!"
"Mother... fucker..." May grunted, taking a few wavering steps forward before stumbling. Astra was no better herself, barely able to stay upright at all. "Bastard! If the world could just stop fucking spinning—"
"What the?" someone said. A figure rode onto the scene, the sound of a bike chain rattling as he pulled up next to them. "May? Astra? Holy crap, are you guys alright?"
Astra looked up in surprise, trying to focus past the ringing in her ears. That voice... "Brendan!?" she gasped, eyes wide. "What are you doing here?"
Dismounting his bike, Brendan hurried over to their side. The black haired boy looked the same as back in Petalburg, sporting a red and black shirt, a white and green hat, and, most strikingly, a pair of shorts over a pair of pants. "You guys left a three block long panic in your wake, I was just following it. Then that screech— never mind that, are you hurt? When did you guys even get here?" he said, offering Astra a hand.
"I'm just... a little dizzy," Astra managed, taking his hand. He pulled her to her feet and Astra kept her head down, briefly rechecking that her face looked right. She shook her head, then grinned at him. "Still... wearing the double pants... I see?" she mumbled, swaying.
"Is that really what you should be focusing on right now?" Brendan asked, annoyance mixing with worry. "What happened?"
"Oh, now you show up," May spat, shaking her head and blinking. She scowled. "We're fine, but that bastard's getting away. Brendan!"
"Eh?" Brendan looked up, staring at her owlishly. "What?"
"That Aqua jackass just shot out our ears!" May snapped, pointing at a dwindling point of azure speeding into the distance, a winding path of shoved-aside pedestrians trailing in his wake. "At this rate he's gonna get away with it scott free! Get on your bike and go after him!"
"You were attacked?" His eyes widened, then narrowed. "Aqua? The environmental group? Why would they—?"
"They stole something from Devon!" Astra burst out, pushing Brendan towards his ride. "He tried to attack us yesterday for it too! You have to catch him!"
Brendan still looked unsure, but a spark of determination lit up in his eyes. "Alright then. You two better explain this later, though." Jumping on his bike, Brendan about faced towards the direction the grunt had left, then hesitated. He looked back. "You should phone the police, or at least a medic!" he called, pumping on the petals. "I'll keep track of him, okay?"
Astra shook her head, shaking off the last of the dizziness. "No way! We'll be right behind you, Brendan, don't let him get away!"
"You better fucking talk to me this time, asshole!" May yelled, flipping him off. "Keep us updated, and save some ass kicking for the rest of us!"
Astra and May watched Brendan speed after the Aqua goon, a clearly exasperated wave of the hand his only response. Astra sighed, rubbing at her head. "Good idea. He's a lot faster on his bike than we are running, he'll probably catch up real fast, though I don't know how well he'll do in slowing him down once he does. I can't believe he showed up now, of all times."
"Yeah, whatever," May muttered, jogging over to pick up her dispirited Poochyena. "Good try, little buddy. You'll get him next time."
Poochyena whined, then licked May's face in apology. May sputtered, letting out a small chuckle as she wiped drool from her face. "Alright, in you go." A flash of light, and Poochyena vanished.
May turned to Astra and jerked her head to the side. "Come on, let's get going," she said, glancing at the whispering onlookers. "At the speed he was going, Brendan's probably already caught up to the guy. We've got a dumbass to beat to a pulp, and I don't trust Brendan to not get his Mudkip eaten by that guys Poochyena."
"Right, right, I'm just..." Astra took one hesitant step, then jogged forward, catching up to May. "Yeah. I'm good. Let's go."
Pushing past the pedestrians, the two of them jogged in the direction they had seen Brendan and the thug vanish. Approaching the street they had last caught sight of them, they slowed down, unsure where they had gone. A minute passed as they dithered, then Astra and May jumped as a ringing sound came from May's bag.
Opening her bag, May took out her pokedex, hesitating only a moment before hitting a button and lifting it to her ear. "Brendan?" she asked, tapping her foot. "Did you get him? Where are you?"
Astra blinked in surprise as a voice came crackling from the device. Was this a 'Phone Call'? So it was like talking but over long distances. Sort of like telepathy, in that you didn't need to be near the recipient in order to talk to them. The range was surprising; Brendan had to be ages away by now. How did it reach all the way? It was also, to Astra's frustration, too quiet to hear from where she was.
May's foot stopped, her scowl deepening in response to the voice on the other end. "Tch, figures. Right, we're coming after you. Don't go getting beaten before I can do it, got me?" Pulling the Pokedex away, May turned back to Astra, irritated. "Bastard stole someone's bike when he saw Brendan coming, but Brendan's still on his ass."
Astra frowned. "Well, that's bad. We need to stop him before he does anything else. Did Brendan say where they were going?"
"Yeah. Asshole's booking it towards the mountains. Shouldn't take too long to get there if we jog." Examining the street signs, May jerked her head down the road. "Few more blocks then gotta turn east. Time to head down Route 116."
Route 116 wasn't much different from the last parts of Route 104. Trees lined both sides of the packed dirt road, through which tall grass made valiant efforts to reclaim precious soil. None of it was particularly unusual, considering it was more or less part of the same woodlands.
Astra and May jogged down the path, huffing as they went. Astra took out her water bottle and chugged, sweat dripping down her face. She was very much not cut out for this. Walking she could handle just fine. That mad sprint earlier followed by non stop jogging? Completely different beast. Couldn't the mountains have been closer to the city? She gasped as she came up for air, wiping her sleeve across her face and leaving it horribly damp.
Black, she had discovered, was very good at absorbing the light of the sun. And its heat. Very definitely its heat. Why hadn't she listened to the Guard so long ago? At least she could still psychically billow her cloak for some air flow, but May's presence made it a much trickier task.
Astra glanced at her companion, who seemed to be taking the ordeal somewhat better than Astra was. Sweat still beaded down May's face, but it was set in determination rather than Astra's own exhaustion. Still, even May seemed to be flagging a bit.
Jogging a bit closer, Astra poked May in the side. "Hey," she said, offering her the bottle.
May blinked, then nodded, taking the bottle and drinking deeply. She exhaled, handing the significantly lighter bottle back. "Thanks."
"Yeah. How much further is it, do you think?"
"Dunno," May answered, peering at the mountain ahead. "Maybe another ten minutes?"
Not too bad, then. She could hold out that long. She took a deep breath, pace steadying out. Hopefully Brendan and their target were at the base of the mountain, and they wouldn't need to sprint somewhere else. Silence descended on the pair, Astra too tired and May too focused to talk.
Up ahead, a shape formed on the horizon. Astra blinked as she made out a small figure dashing for their life down the road. It soon resolved into a small girl, wailing in despair.
"What the hell is it now?" May groused, glaring at the girl. "We're behind enough as is."
"Hey!" Astra called out, stopping to catch her breath, May reluctantly coming to a halt as well. "Is something wrong?"
The girl ignored Astra, blasting past them in a tear filled blur. "I DON'T WANNA GET EATEN BY BUUHUUUHUUUGS!" she howled, vanishing into the distance.
Astra and May stared at the dwindling dust cloud, bewildered. They looked at each other.
"Did you understand that at all?" May asked, waving a hand in the girls direction.
"Not really?" Astra said, shrugging. "It wasn't very coherent." She paused as something at the edge of her hearing began to buzz. "Wait, do you hear something?"
"No? What is it?"
"I dunno, it sounds like those lights back at the Pokecenter—oh." Astra stopped as the buzzing grew louder, staring at the road ahead with wide eyes. "Oh no."
"Eh?" May said, blinking. "What's—oh shit."
On the road ahead, a dozen insectile forms scuttled angrily down the dirt path, white carapaces gleaming in the sun. Black and green eyes glared balefully up at them, and their stunted wings buzzed with enough force to drown the air in sheer noise.
"Nincada swarm!" Astra bellowed, fumbling for a pokeball. The foot-tall insects had rarely traveled south enough to bother Astra's village, but on rare occasions a great swarm would crawl in from the north and try to devour the entire garden. Psychic assaults had been workable, but another strategy had proven to be far more effective.
After all, everyone knew that Nincada couldn't swim.
"NINCADA-CADA-CADA-CADA-CADA!" the Nincada screeched, fury thrumming through every word. "CADA-CADA-CADA-CADA-CADA—!"
"Marill," Astra called, tossing her ball into the air. "Water gun! Drown them all!"
"Marill ma—Mar!?" Marill appeared then recoiled, shocked at the sight of so many Nincada. Shaking her head, she heeded Astra's command and swelled up, then blasted a pressurized stream of water down the trail.
The great chorus cut off as a Nincada took the hit head on, crumpling under the blow and crashing into the Nincada behind them. The two fell to the ground in a clump, thoroughly soaked. Their limbs twitched, struggling limply before falling inert. Marill let out a whoop in celebration, then prepared to fire once more. A moment later, Lotad appeared next to her, blinking at the oncoming horde.
"Just one hit? Hah!" May sniffed, grinning. "Don't even need to worry, this'll be a piece of cake! Lotad, blast them to smithereens!"
"Tad!" Lotad warked, adding her own blast of water to the mix and forcing another Nincada to fall.
The two water pokemon fired rapidly down the trail, four more falling to the onslaught. One Nincada, larger than the others, let out a rallying cry as the remaining five closed into melee range. They split apart, two Nincada diving for Lotad and the larger one leading the last two in a charge against Marill.
Astra grimaced. She had hoped that Marill would have gotten them all before they closed into melee. She'd seen the sorts of injuries Nincada had left on the village guards, and she'd wanted to spare Marill from that. If Marill could just ward them off for a bit...
"Tail whip!" Astra ordered. "Don't let them get too close!"
Marill whirled around, tail neatly smacking one of the small Nincada and sending it flying into a tree. The other two, furious and undeterred, descended on Marill, claws raking a multitude of shallow gouges across her sides. Marill screeched in pain and anger, spinning around and blasting the smaller Nincada in the face. The insect rocketed into a tree and fell to the ground with a wet thump.
"NINCADA!" The large Nincada roared, flaring its stunted wings. It jumped on Marill, claws scoring marks into her head as it furiously slashed away.
"Ah!? Throw him off, Marill!" Astra yelled, wide eyed. Stop, drop, and roll!
Curling into a ball, Marill spun forward, crushing the surprised Nincada between herself and the ground. The Nincada released its hold and fell, twitching as it lay on the packed earth. Suddenly it flipped over, glaring daggers at Marill. An eerie calm overcame its eyes, fiery rage transitioning into cold calculation.
Astra blinked, surprised. This was one tough bug. Nincada weren't usually this stubborn. "Finish it off with a water gun!" She bellowed, pointing at the defiant insect.
Marill swelled, but before she could fire, the Nincada quickly bit into the earth and then spat. A glob of brown shot through the air and hit Marill directly in the left eye. Marill cried out in pain, water spilling onto the dirt as her stubby arms wiped frantically at her injured eye.
"What!?" Astra said, shocked. Had it just shot a wad of mud into Marill's eye? What a sneaky little bug. She tensed as light flashed in the Nincada's eyes. "Come on, Marill!" Astra called, focusing. "Don't let this bug get the better of you!" Roll left and fire!
Marill growled, scraping away the last of the mud off. Though her injured eye was free of debris, Marill kept it closed. Curling up on herself, Marill pushed, sending herself barreling to the side. At the same time, the Nincada reared back and leapt forward—directly to Marill's left!? "Marill, wait!" Astra shouted, panicked. "It's already—!"
Marill had uncurled, already preparing her water gun. The water caught in her throat when she saw Nincada already descending upon her. She recoiled, half-formed water gun falling apart once more in an alarmed gurgle as Nincada's claw slashed down.
Pain.
And then Marill screamed. A red line opened across her remaining eye, trickling crimson down her cheek. She clutched at the wound and fell to the ground, rolling around in agony.
"Marill!" Astra exclaimed, reeling back as the pain surged along the psychic link. "No no no— return!" Red light flashed, and Marill's cries were mercifully cut short. Astra stared at the pokeball, grimacing.
To her side, the duo of Nincada facing May's Lotad had finally been vanquished in an aquatic beatdown. May glanced over at Astra's battle, then cringed. "Holy shit," she muttered, wincing at the brief glimpse she had seen. "That looked really bad. How the hell are you getting bodied this badly?"
"I don't know," Astra growled, glaring at the Nincada. The insect stared back, eyes gleaming and claws raised. "But I'm putting an end to it. Slakoth," she said, her newest teammate coalescing onto the trail in yet another burst of light. "Let's go!"
"Sla?" Slakoth blinked, taking in the Nincada before him. He gave it a lopsided grin. "Slaa..."
The Nincada seemed to take offence to that. Buzzing furiously, the insect darted forward, claws poised to strike—
"Rock tomb," Astra said, flatly.
—only to stumble and shriek as a quintet of rocky needles erupted from the ground, piercing its chitin and pinning it in place. The Nincada wriggled furiously inside its stone prison, chittering furiously.
"Nincada! Cada-cada-cada-cada-cada—!"
"Slakoth?" Astra asked, sweetly.
"Sla?" he responded, giving his trainer an expectant stare.
"Throw it through a tree."
Slakoth grinned. "Koth!"
The Nincada stilled as Slakoth meandered up to the spiky prison. Beady eyes widened in alarm as Slakoth's paw descended. "Cada!?"
"Slak." Slakoth grinned, and then there was a light crunch as his hand closed around the Nincada's back, breaking the stone needles with casual ease. Nincada struggled against Slakoth's grip, legs clawing frantically at thin air.
"Nincada!" it said, head swiveling violently, searching for any possible salvation. Its eyes alighted upon its fellow Nincada scattered upon the ground like refuse and it paused, all hope draining from its eyes. "Cada?"
"Koth." Slakoth agreed, winding back.
Slakoth eyed a tree near the trail, wound up, and threw. Nincada screamed, wings flaring uselessly. The bark crunched as the insect collided with the trunk, and myriad cracks burst open along Nincada's back. Nincada let out a mournful croak, then fell to the ground, twitching.
Astra glared at the Nincada for a moment, then sighed. "Good job, Slakoth," she said, raising his pokeball. Slakoth gave her a wide smile as he vanished into his pokeball.
"Well, that happened." May said, looking around at the scattered bodies. She frowned as one of them jerked upright, but relaxed when it merely looked around woozily and stumbled off into the forest. "What the hell set them off?"
"I'm not sure," Astra admitted, turning back to the road. "Maybe that girl earlier...?"
"No way," May disagreed, shaking her head. "With the way she was squawking, that kid never would've messed with a bunch of Nincada. Maybe it was that Aqua jerk? But how would he make a bunch of bugs riot if he was running from Brendan?"
"I don't know," Astra said, starting down the road again. "But we'd better hurry. If something happened—"
"Nin... cada..." A raspy voice called out from behind them. Both trainers whirled around in shock, staring at the large Nincada. Said bug had struggled to its feet, and even now was limping towards them, breath rattling with every shaking step.
"How the hell is it still moving?" May grimaced, eyeing the large rends in its back.
"Why is it still moving!?" Astra demanded, throwing her hands up in exasperation. "It should've been knocked out twice over from that! Why does it... huh?" Astra paused, staring at the Nincada. The white hot rage and icy fury it had radiated earlier had vanished. In its place was stubborn determination, respect, and... something.
Struggling onward, the Nincada came to a stop a short distance away from the two of them. It appeared to study Astra for a moment, before nodding its head and... knelt?
Astra stared at the Nincada. There really was no other word for it: it had folded its front legs under it, closed its eyes, and then leaned forward, dipping its head down. It was kneeling. Why?
"Nincada," It rasped, syllables coming out between harsh gasps for air. "Cada-cada-cada nin."
Puzzled, Astra brushed against the bug's mind, searching for an explanation.
Submission.
Ah. Well then.
"I think," Astra started, slowly, "That it wants to join me."
"Yeah, guess so." May said, considering the bug. She frowned. "Not a fan of bugs, personally, and these guys seemed pretty fragile. Gonna go for it?"
Astra hummed, considering Nincada in a new light. "He didn't seem weak at all." she mused, thinking aloud. "He was smart enough to target Marill's weak points and fast enough to actually hit them when it mattered—"
"Okay, yeah, fantastic," May interrupted, brushing Astra's monologue aside. "Just toss a ball and let's go. We're in a hurry, remember?"
"You're the one that asked," Astra muttered, fumbling for an empty pokeball. "Yeah, got it. As for you," she said, staring at the Nincada. "I don't like you. But you're good, and I suppose that's enough."
Nincada looked up, antennae twitching. Its eyes flickered from the pokeball to Astra. If it could have smiled, Astra got the feeling it would have.
"Nincada," it intoned, oddly formal. It bowed again, and then vanished into red light. The pokeball fell to the ground, wobbled thrice, and then fell still with a chime. Astra picked it up and stuffed it into her bag. She'd have to sort it out later.
For now, they had to catch up to Brendan, and catch the Aqua thief. She grimaced. Not having Marill would be a major hindrance, and while Slakoth did well, she hadn't yet tested him in a full scale battle yet. She shook her head, going to May's side and returning to their journey. No use worrying now. After all, Treecko was still completely fresh; so long as she had him, there wasn't anything that could stand in her way.
"Hey," May began as they ramped up to jogging speed again. "Weren't you complaining like, two days ago about not finding anything to catch?"
Astra huffed, already feeling her legs straining once again. She glanced at May. "Yeah? What about it?"
May grinned. "With all these pokemon basically falling into your lap, I guess you'll never have to bug me about it again, huh?"
To her astonishment, Astra found she still had enough air in her lungs to groan. "You're terrible, you know that?
"Haha!"
Chapter was getting way too long so I cut the front third off. God, the anxiety never really gets better.
Sorry about the delay. Next one will definately be called Cacophony. It has roughly 10-11k already done. I anticipate a few more thousand yet to go.
Trevor had started to fiddle with the knobs at the top of the violin. "It's just that not many people are interested in learning to play nowadays." He plucked a string and listened intently.
Astra processed this for a moment, then her jaw dropped. "What? Nobody wants to learn that!?" Back home, they'd be fighting tooth and nail to wield a violin! "How- why- Who wouldn't want to learn how to do that!?"
"Well, I suppose they just had different priorities." He gave her a sardonic glance. "Like training pokemon."
Astra flushed and looked away. That wasn't fair, she didn't even know violins had existed until yesterday! Not to mention her task of becoming the champion. Maybe in a better world, but… "I never had the choice." She mumbled.
"Oh? Were there no teachers where you are from?"
"Something like that."
"I see…" He looked at her pensively. "If you had had the opportunity, would you have done so?"
If she didn't have to disguise herself? If she didn't have to fight for her people's protection? "Training is really important to me right now, but I… I think I would have liked to." she admitted. "It's a nice dream."
"Would you like to try?"
Astra blinked uncomprehendingly. "Eh? What do you mean?"
Trevor smiled. "Well, I seem to have a violin right here. I also happen to be quite proficient at using it. Do you want me to teach you?"
"Really!?" Astra asked, eyes wide. "You'd do that?"
"If you are willing, I can think of no better way to spend my time."
Astra was on her feet in an instant, letting out a happy squeak as she jumped in excitement. "I'd love to!" This was amazing! She could learn to play, and give everyone back home a performance, and- and… Astras face fell.
"Hm?" Trevor gave her a concerned look as her demeanor turned downcast. "Is there something wrong? You seemed excited."
"I don't think I have time for it." Astra looked into the distance, the giant GYM sign looming in the distance. "I need to go challenge all of the gym leaders as fast as I can. It's really important, and why I came here in the first place."
Trevor hummed. He plucked one last string on his instrument and listened as the note thrummed through the crowded street.
Astra glanced back and forth, seemingly ready to bolt. She didn't know how to answer, but neither did she want to disappoint the old man who had showed her so much.
"Now, you don't have to answer if you don't want to," Trevor carefully reassured. "It just seems to me... you don't seem like many of the other kids these days, chasing badges on a whim. You have real appreciation for music. You feel the loss in not being able to play. From what I reckon: if, in spite of all that, you feel the need to go badge-hunting anyway... well, it has to be something important, right?"
Astra sighed, her robes deflating slightly. "It is, Trevor. It's for a very important reason, but I'm not allowed to tell anyone."
Trevor leaned back, his eyes slowly gazing up at the sky. "It must be a hell of a reason, then," he finally commented. Astra could almost see the thoughts behind his eyes: it wasn't to become Champion--that wouldn't be some big secret--but there wasn't other reason to get that many badges. Certainly it wasn't a prerequisite of any other job or position.
She'd given away too much, she realized. It didn't matter how much she'd enjoyed Trevor's company; she would have to slip awa--
"Astra." Trevor strained, choosing his words carefully. "You don't have to answer; don't say anything that you don't want to say, but... is there anything else you might need help with? That's the only reason I can think of, that someone might want to become Champion but not really." He took a deep breath. "If it's something like that, then... there are alternatives. Being Champion would help, yes, but it's not the only way to fix things; not even the easiest way." He smiled sympathetically. "There's only one Champion, you see, and a lot of competition for the position. It could take years to make it that far, and it's not a certainty that anyone makes it at all." He paused, staring directly at her. "Not everyone gets to be Champion, but there's many other kind folk who would gladly help anyway, Champion or no. You just have to ask."
Tears dripped through Astra's mask. She wanted to-- she'd never imagined... but could she even afford to trust him? A single wrong word to the wrong human, and her entire village would pay the price.
"I... can I have more time to think about this?" she asked, lamely.
Trevor seemed hesitant, but eventually nodded. "I'll be here every day, Astra. When you're ready, come find me."
Suddenly seeming to recall what they had been talking of before, he immediately brightened. "Ah; I'm not sure if you remember, but I promised you a violin lesson before we derailed into such weighty topics. It's probably best to lighten up the mood, anyway. Still interested?"
The tears in Astra's mask were joined by a wide grin. Somehow, it wasn't the worst-feeling combination.
* * *
"That... certainly sounds like the interesting encounter," Grandpa probed.
Astra blinked in melancholy, deflating and sighing. "It felt wrong," she conceded. "Trevor's been the best kind of friend I could've asked for, and I couldn't even tell him."
And, underneath, she couldn't deny, she was afraid of whether Trevor would remain a friend, afterwards.
"You know as well as I do," Grandpa murmured solemnly, "how much of a risk we all take in any sort of divulgence. This Trevor may be a good human, for all I know, but it doesn't mean he's influential enough to change their society. On the other hand: the more we tell, the higher the chance someone gives it away, even by accident. You have to weigh both the risks and the rewards."
"That's exactly the thing, though," Astra protested. "I started this journey under the assumption that the Champion was the linchpin of their society. What if I was wrong? What if, yes, she's the linchpin, but not their only one? If Trevor was right, then others might be able to help, and he was absolutely right in that becoming Champion isn't so straightforward. That idiot-head Norman kicked me out of the Gym without so much as letting me fight! Maybe there are other ways." Astra deflated. "But, I don't even know how to make inquiries, without giving everything away."
Grandpa paused, considering the problem for nearly five minutes, Astra resting defeated by the table, staring into space.
Finally, he spoke: "You know, Astra, we have in this village a role called 'Secret-Keeper'..."
* * *
"I need to know if there are people who are absolutely required not to divulge secrets. These secrets don't belong to me; I really want to just tell you but it's not my place. But I know things, nonetheless, that absolutely must remain unspread. It's a matter of life and death."
Trevor gaped, hand on his violin stick. "Well, I suppose I didn't expect such a serious question so early." He sighed. "Let's sit down."
* * *
"Lw... lw..."
"Lawyer?" May asked in disbelief. She was still a bit miffed, that her own suggestion of "Counselor" had been dismissed.
"I'd like to know the roles of both these people," her weird new friend insisted.
* * *
Astra shuffled the thick packet of notes, pausing for a moment to collect her thoughts. The second pillar of their strategy: independent verification. If different, unrelated humans said the same thing, it was far more likely to be true.
(Oftentimes, Astra would just barely hint at a name, and get a confirmatory result, after which the descriptions would roughly match. She highly doubted there was hidden information in those few syllables, so it was probably not a case of collaboration.)
"The most consistent suggestion is the practice of Lawyer," Astra summarized, her Grandpa listening intently. "Apparently, they have a thing called 'Attourney-Client Privilege' which is never supposed to be breached. It's the closest to the role of Mediator that we'd talked about."
She pointed toward a second set of notes.
"The next most common suggestion was the practice of Doctor, who have something called 'Doctor-Patient Confidentiality'. However, their role seems limited to studying the health of the body. They don't appear to advocate directly on behalf of others."
A third pile, not pointed at, had been spread disorganizedly across more than a quarter of the table.
"There are other roles: Counselor, Social Worker, Therapist. But none of them are as good a match as the first." Astra sighed. "Which brings us to our next problem: Lawyers are universally polled as being expensive; and the better they are, the more expensive they are. Which means, we need a source of funding."
* * *
"Are you sure you're not coming with us?" May asked. She really was disappointed, Astra realized.
"I'm sorry," Astra sighed, her form drooping. "I have my role to play here, and the continued existence of my village depends on it." The robes looked shamefacedly away. "I really don't want to leave you, but I must." Then, her mental voice uplifting a bit: "You could stay?"
"Ha!" May snapped, patting the smaller form on the hood. "No way I can stand to be around Norman any longer." Her expression softened. "It's not your fault. We'll call each other often, okay?"
"Call?"
"Oh, for fuck's sake."
* * *
"I've decided to accept your offer," Astra announced. "My village has decided the possible monetary and public relations benefits are too great to ignore."
Trevor couldn't help a small sigh. He was supposed to be retired. Not anymore, apparently.
Those who can't do, so the old saying goes, teach. At the very least, he'd been blessed with a pupil more than worthy of his attention, even if she came with, as it often seemed, entire carousels of baggage. He still had no idea why she needed a high-powered lawyer, why she sometimes acted as if her village was on the brink of annihilation. He honestly wasn't sure that she wouldn't simply vanish on him one day, gone forever.
It was fortunate, for the both of them, that he wasn't doing this for the fame or money. The risk alone would have precluded any such venture.
The last few days had been spent going over the in-s and out-s of Astra's apprenticeship. With any normal student, he would have just kept it informal, but he was half-convinced Astra was being abused, and half that she was on the run... from whom, he couldn't imagine. Certainly, as she kept suggesting, she (and/or her village) needed the money. If she would simply tell him what the problem was, maybe he'd be able to find some sympathetic retirees... but no, he didn't really have all that many friends to begin with.
Fortunately, Astra was already getting some PR payoff, even in this practice hall. A group of musicians gaped at her performance, awed, envious, inspired. She received suggestions as to improvements, even half-jeers such as "why don't you play a second instrument with your feet?" Little did they realize how seriously she would take the sarcasm.
* * *
"I still can't believe you didn't tell me," May complained.
Astra typed out her response: [I didn't really understand how the Pokedex calling function was supposed to work. It seemed strange to me, the way you described it, but so did all technology.]
May read the message, and sighed. "Still, I've never met a Psychic before. Much less someone who only talks in Psychic."
[Well, now you have?]
May snorted. Astra's image grinned back at her, from the small window.
"So, how's the musicianing going?" she asked, casually leaning back.
[It is going quite well. I am learning to play a second instrument.]
"Really? At the same time? That seems pretty hard."
[The others said much the same thing.]
* * *
"Astra? Astra!" May knocked on the screen. "What the fuck am I seeing on Poketube? When you said you were playing a second instrument, I didn't think it was at the same time."
* * *
Astra sighed. She'd become far too comfortable with her existing role, her Poketube celebrity. She'd wanted to make sure they had enough money. She'd wanted the fallbacks of popularity and social connections, as her inquiries had made it increasingly clear that, as a Pokemon, she possibly didn't even have rights.
Many an evening had been spent giving a personal performance at some upper-crust elite's son's birthday party, at political rallies, on publicity stunts at charitable events. On one memorable occasion, she'd played for the relief workers in the aftermath of a Legendary attack, an event that had sparked several flame wars as to the most moral use of that time. She'd been fortunate that the relief workers had backed her up, that her small stature had suggested a weak physical constitution. She, alone, knew that to be the lie it actually was.
Maybe she did wait too long. May often spoke of the disadvantages of hesitation. In this case, Astra still believed she was just covering her bases. Half her Poketube wealth had been converted into gold bars, smuggled out to the Ralts village: a healthy war-chest in case the worst happened today. She had hidden several "tell-all" videos with her friends, and could ask for any one of them to be uploaded with a simple message.
"You okay?" May asked with an askance glance.
Silence. Eventually, the taller girl turned away.
"You know, I'm still mad you still won't tell me what this is about. I haven't forgotten that you've been on about this since pretty much our first meeting." She looked around the waiting room, sighing. "How far you've come, I guess."
Astra said nothing. They'd had this same quarrel for months now, thankfully--or perhaps unthankfully--limited by how little they'd managed to see each other.
May fumed, then leaned back on the golden chair, hand fidgeting on her pokeball belt.
Finally, the huddling bundle stopped the mild shivering that had, above all else, made plain this meeting's seriousness.
"I will," Astra whispered. "By the end of today, at latest, you'll know." She quaked again. "I don't know if I can do it. Bad habits, I guess. I'm just so used to hiding."
May's absence had made it too easy to just brush the issue under the rug, pretend that everything was fine. She really shouldn't have neglected one of the few humans she could call friend.
May glanced at her, nonplussed, before reaching over for a side-hug. "I still think it's weird you need my moral support," she jibed, intentionally changing the subject. "Don't get me wrong, a friend's a friend and I'm absolutely here. I'm just not really the most moral or supportive of them."
"You'd be surprised," Astra said, smiling. That smile quickly turned brittle. May wasn't actually here for moral support, but for firepower in case the firm suddenly tried to kidnap her. Another lie.
At least she was reasonably confident that the headstrong girl wouldn't turn her pokeball on Astra herself.
"May," Astra whimpered, "if anything happens in there, if you see or hear anything surprising, that makes you think differently of--"
"Don't even start," May sighed. "What are friends for, right?"
The silence lasted several minutes, this time, until--
"Astra?" the secretary asked. "Ms Escher will see you now."
Astra, trailed by May, stepped into the offices of Godel, Escher and Bach, Attorneys at Law.
* * *
The concert ended in a standing ovation. Thousands had gathered to see the Virtuoso herself, the former Poketube star who, by now, played with no fewer than five instruments on and around her person. The Multiplayer, she had been dubbed by the gaming generation. The Insane Bitch: a half-mocking, half-awed nom de guerre by some of her former peers back from the training hall.
It was well known that the livestreams, as impressive as they were, were never quite a match for her live concerts, for there she would push forward an additional instrument, directly to the listeners' minds. The first-time audience clapped all the louder, dazzled by the unique experience.
Minutes later, as the ovation started to fade, a whispering silence descended upon the hall as an interpreter stepped up on the stage. Astra famously had no interpreters; she would communicate with the audience directly, and they would respond in coordinated and chorused shouts: a marketing tactic meant to remind the livestreamers of what they weren't hearing.
"Thank you," her telepathic voice rang in the onlookers' ears, and the interpreter's through her miniature microphone. "From the bottom of my heart, from the depths of my soul, I am so happy to have had the opportunity to play here, for the each and every one of you, in this beautiful stadium."
More cheers, this time fading more quickly in anticipation.
"None of this would have been possible without my teacher, Trevor, my dear friend, May. My doting Grandpa, a solid rock of support back home, who took a chance in letting me loose on this big and scary world." Mild laughter. "None of it could have happened without the wonderful set workers and technicians of this stadium; and, last but by no means least, the incredible support of my fans.
"The past year has been both frightening and invigorating. Never in my wildest dreams had I believed I could perform, live, and not only with my oldest and most cherished instrument--" she cradled the violin "--but with so many others. It was because of you, because of all of you, that I was given the confidence to expand my horizons, to give back to the world all the wonder I had ever felt, the first time I saw an old man, making music on this very instrument, one fateful morning in the Petalburg City Park."
The audience listened intently.
"I'm not sure if you knew this," Astra teased, "but, at the time, I was committed to becoming the next Pokemon Champion." A pause, an expanding wave of laughter. "I know, right? It was Trevor, that very day, who convinced me that I could do differently, that I would end up bringing more joy by playing to the talents he had so generously noticed within those first, feeble attempts." She paused. "This is a joy that I've since tried to share; and one that, today in particular, I hope comes to fruition.
"For today, you see, I have a confession to make. It's one that I've been both anticipating and dreading in equal degree; something I'd been hiding, out of fear, from the very first day when I chanced upon the kind old man playing in that peaceful park. Many of you know, or have figured out, that I play my instruments using psychic powers. What you might not know is how I've managed so many and so accurately compared to the average person..." Astra took in a deep breath, intentionally looking down. "In my village, the use of such psychic abilities was commonplace. It was so well-practiced, and to such a casual degree, because we simply had no other means of accomplishing basic tasks. We had none of the technology I was dazzled by, when I first set foot in this city. No cars, no computers, no running water. Our village palisades were beset by powerful wild pokemon, willing and ready to steal away our young should they ever get past our guards.
"You might ask how the Hoenn government could possibly have sanctioned such a settlement, how they hadn't provided humanitarian aid for people in such distress. And perhaps they would have, but therein lies the final twist to this tragedy; for, you see, we weren't human."
A stirring. Murmurs, gradually rising, as people individually caught on to that last phrase.
"These people, my people, are of a species of pokemon called Ralts. The story I described is the tragedy of Ralts Village, and I, personally--"
A tailor quickly stepped foot on the stage. In a series of rapid motions, Astra's cloak came off for the final time, replaced with form-fitting finery to which the tailor only made the slightest adjustments, before departing the stage.
It was mostly for show, of course (though the tailor's experienced eye really was used to good effect). Astra had been dressed-up from the start, and could very well have removed the cloak herself. This sequence, however, apparently left human audiences more comfortable than did having an unknown pokemon use visible psychic powers as revelation--never mind that she'd been doing exactly that for the past six hours.
"There was the longest time, when I thought I would never have to remove my cloak, that my music would speak for itself. And, to a degree, I confess..." And here Astra deflated, much as those familiar with her mannerisms would've seen in many a performance, from outside the cloak, "I was scared to do so. I had no idea how the world would react, seeing who I was underneath. I woke up, every day, feeling the dread of whether that would be the day I would slip, that I would finally be found out for whom I truly was. It could've gone that way forever, but my dearest friends--"
Loud murmurings had gradually flared up among the audience, but then the audience plants started cheering, joined quickly by the enthusiasts who weren't as taken by surprise and then those who were; and, soon enough, the infectious cheers boomed through the stadium.
"My dearest friends," Astra whispered, wiping a tear from her eye, "told me that this was for the best. That if I didn't come out from beneath the cloak then no one ever would. They gave compassion where I harbored only fear; they gifted encouragement where I felt only doubt. But, at the end of the day, I believed them. I believed them and that is why I stand before you today: to find friends among all the human race; all who may, in the end, see and also believe, startle and also understand, who might share love and kindness regardless of shape and size."
The audience clapped all the louder, beginning a repeat of the earlier standing ovation; and whether or not it was led, this time, by the audience plants, who could say?
Eventually, the applause began to yet again simmer down, and Astra called attention to the nearby box seats, where a spotlight now began to shine.
"Today, I am proud to introduce to you for the first time: my Grandpa, and all the other Ralts village elders. This is the very first chance they have ever had to come to a real live concert, to see the wondrous culture that the human race has developed; a culture that I am very fortunate to have had an opportunity to play a part in."
Though an increased risk, this was a necessary part of the presentation. They had decided early on that the reveal wouldn't be Astra alone, that it would leave no doubt that she was but one among many, not unique, or a controlled plant; that she really did have family and peers.
"Finally..." A show of force, in the political and social sense. "It is with a buoyed spirit, but also with a heavy heart, that I, in partnership with the Hoenn Space Agency, with Godel, Escher and Bach, and with the Friends of Pokemon, hereby announce the formation of a new initiative: the Foundation For The Humanitarian Aid of Uncontacted Persons. The tragedy of my village may have had a happy ending, but how many other villages are also out there, never knowing of anything beyond their terrified, tragic existences?" Astra wiped away another tear. "Our Foundation will assist in the discovery and integration of such peoples, in their efforts to adapt to modern day life; will help protect them until they are able and ready to vouchsafe for their own protection. I do this--we all do this--in the hope that the sad horrors of my village need never happen again to anyone else.
The base of the mountain came into view six minutes later, and it took half that time to finally reach it. Astra took deep, gasping breaths as she and May finally began to slow down. Never again, she vowed as she slogged through the final mile, legs feeling like jelly. Never. Again.
The mountain in front of them speared into the sky, the odd bush or tree the only break in the uniformly reddish-tan stone. Relatively boring, but behind it loomed Mt. Chimney, a smoking beacon that dwarfed the mountain before her, taller than anything Astra had ever imagined. She had only ever seen the landmark from the few times she had climbed to the top of the village's canopy, or more recently from a few vantage points in her travels. The smoke constantly flowing from the largest peak was a mystery to her. How could a mountain smoke? Was it on fire? But how could you set a rock on fire?
Whatever the reason, it had always been too far away to tell, and the smoke always seemed to billow to the north. But from this distance she could see the row of successively smaller peaks trailing southward, leading to the smaller mountain directly before them.
Route 116 ran up against the mountain, leading up to a large opening in the steep rock edifice. A tunnel through the mountain, it seemed, though Astra couldn't see the far end. Absently, she wondered how long it would take to pass through. Off to the side was a small lodge with piles of what Astra assumed was mining equipment lined up against the walls, alongside a couple bicycles.
Standing around the lodge were about a half dozen burly looking workers. They were gathered together, glancing at the tunnel mouth occasionally and muttering to each other in low tones. And sitting at a large table next to them—
"Brendan!" Astra exclaimed, exhaling sharply in relief. "You're okay!"
Brendan, who had been quietly conversing with a forlorn looking old man, looked up and grinned. "Guys!" he called, standing up and beckoning them over. "Glad you caught up in time. Things are getting serious."
Astra and May staggered through the last few yards, and Astra took a moment to examine the old man. The first thing she noticed was the strong scent of salt, strongly reminding her of the beach. His head was bald and shiny, contrasted by the full white beard and moustache coating the bottom of his face. His face was marked by a swathe of oddly colored spots, laugh lines and crinkles around his eyes. He also looked to have been crying recently, and still seemed to be on the verge of tears.
Brendan, on the other hand, looked like he had been dragged through a bush. His clothes were dishevelled, and he looked to have gained a few scrapes and cuts at some point. Had the Aqua grunt attacked him? Actually, where was he? Astra glanced about, but couldn't spot the telltale flash of blue. What happened here?
"Who's this old dude?" May asked between gasping breaths.
"What do— ah," Brendan started, then blinked. "Right. Just moved. This is Mr. Briney. He's a well known sailor, so much so that practically everyone in Hoenn knows him."
"What's a sailor?" Astra asked, tilting her head. Brendan gave her an incredulous look.
"He travels on a boat a lot," May answered absently. "Okay so why's he looking like his pet died?" She looked around, frowning. "And where's that Aqua jackass? Did he get away?"
Mr. Briney abruptly burst into tears. "Peeko!" he wailed, clutching his hands together and crumpling in on himself. "My darling Peeko! Oh, please be safe..."
"Oh jeez, hey, hey now, don't worry," Brendan said, patting Briney on the shoulder. "He'll be just fine. Me and my friends are gonna go in there and rescue him, alright?"
'Oh, will you?" Mr. Briney sniffed, looking up at Brendan with shining eyes. "Please hurry. Peeko is my dearest friend in this world. Oh..."
"Peeko?" Astra asked.
"Mr Briney's pet Wingull," Brendan answered, patting Mr. Briney on the shoulder once more. He stood up, jerking his head toward the mountain tunnel. "Come on, I'll explain on the way. The thief is still in the tunnel."
"The tunnel?" Astra asked as the three of them started towards the cavernous opening. "Don't tunnels lead somewhere? Why hasn't he left?"
"Rusturf Tunnel is supposed to lead to Verdanturf Town, but you know that huge explosion yesterday?" Brendan asked. "Apparently the aftershocks were enough to destabilize some of the support structure inside, so there was a big cave in right in the middle. Whole passage is blocked off by a giant pile of rubble. Those workers were called in to clear it, though apparently it's slow going."
Astra winced at the reminder of her escapade. Was this her fault too? "Was anyone... inside?" she asked, afraid of the answer.
Brendan hesitated. "I didn't hear anything about it, so I don't think there was."
Astra exhaled, a weight lifting off her shoulders. "Good." she said, relief in her voice. At least she hadn't hurt anyone.
The workers nodded to them as they passed. "Good luck in there," one said, folding his arms. "But try to keep it quiet, alright? We don't need more trouble than we've already got."
"We'll try," Brendan said, nodding back. "Thanks for the info."
May examined the tunnel ahead, ignoring the well wishes of the laborers. "So when the dumbass ran in, he didn't know it was a dead end..." She said, a grin spreading across her face. "He's trapped himself. Fish in a barrel."
"Fish in a— huh?" Astra blinked, confused. What kind of expression was that? "Okay. Well, at least he can't run away anymore. Now we just need to get that briefcase out of his hands, and..." Astra hesitated. "Rescue Peeko? Is he in the tunnel? Why?"
"That'd be the fault of our target," Brendan said, sounding grim. "I caught up to him when the workers tried to stop him from going into the cave. I wasn't able to take him down, however; he used his Zubat to supersonic the entire camp and took Peeko hostage in the confusion. The noise drew a whole horde of Nincada out of the woods too. I had to deal with the swarm before they could hurt anyone, but they whittled me down to Mudkip in the process. The Aqua member hightailed it into Rusturf Tunnel while I was distracted."
"So that's where they came from." Astra mused. "We fought a dozen of them on the way here. They were chasing some girl."
Brendan shrugged. "I don't know about any girl, but I think I did pass someone on the way. That might've been her."
"I'm just happy we can finally kick this bastard's ass once and for all," May said, grinning. "He's been giving us the slip for way too long."
"Just be careful," Brendan warned as they entered the mouth of the passage side by side. "There's an entire colony of Whismur inhabiting the burrows here. We have to be quiet or there'll be an uproar."
The air turned chilly past the threshold, and soon the dim artificial lighting from the tunnels' sparse lanterns were all that illuminated the dark. The tunnel seemed to curve south, leaving them with only a few yards of sight. At least it wasn't super cramped; Astra could fit about two and a half of herself laid out lengthwise from wall to wall. Though if a fight broke out she doubted that they could have more than a few pokemon out without running into problems.
Astra gazed at the tunnel walls, the enclosed atmosphere reminding her strongly of home. The walls were startlingly barren, aside from the frequent man-made structures reinforcing the stability of the rock. Her Grandpa would love to work on such an expansive new canvas.
"What's a Whismur?" she asked, turning back to Brendan.
"A normal type pokemon, average of two feet tall with a spherical body plan, stubby arms, large, padded feet and two giant ears folded over its head." Brendan responded, reciting the information stoically. "Mauve with yellow highlights, eyes consist of two sets of four lines arranged in a plus sign."
"Did you like, memorize a textbook?" May asked, glancing at Brendan. "No really, did you actually sit down and reread one enough that you can just spout lines off it verbatim?"
That was an interesting shade of red Brendan was turning, Astra noted. "What's a textbook?" she asked, turning to May. "Is it different from a regular book?"
"Anyway," May continued, ignoring Astra's question and Brendan's confused doubletake, "Doesn't sound like too much of a problem. Just some purple puffballs, right? Even if they get a little mad, we can deal with it no problem!"
Brendan gave her a flat look. "When Whismur get scared, and they scare very easily, they scream loud enough to rupture eardrums."
May and Astra stopped, staring at Brendan with wide eyes. He stared back, eyes lidded.
"Ah," Astra said, after a moment. "That sounds... bad."
"You couldn't have mentioned that before we went inside?" May quietly hissed, glancing warily at the looming darkness.
"Maybe you'd know if you looked in a textbook," Brendan huffed, folding his arms.
"If you got one on you I can smack you with it."
"I still don't know what that is!" Astra complained.
"And that is very concerning!" Brendan exclaimed, his voice suddenly breaking the hushed silence the three had fallen into. He looked at Astra, worriedly. "When you say that, what exactly—"
"Whismur?"
Everyone froze. All eyes turned toward the newcomer. A Whismur had stumbled out of an unseen side tunnel around the corner and was now staring at them. Brendan, Astra noted, had described it rather accurately. Even the really absurd looking eyes. It shied back, trembling as three sets of eyes abruptly turned its way.
"W-whis..." It whimpered, then darted behind a wooden support pillar. It peeked out after a moment, then shrank back again when it saw them still looking at it.
Astra held up her hands and backed up a few steps, which seemed to help with the large amount of distress she could sense from the creature. "Brendan," she asked, keeping an eye on the Whismur (which had, alarmingly, started to cry a bit if the wet sniffles were any indication.) "Are they really as bad as you said?"
"I was exaggerating," he admitted in a whisper, also sidling towards the wall. "But it's not pleasant. And if there are any more, it really can get that bad."
"Fantastic, at least I'll only be mostly deaf," May muttered. "How the hell did that other guy— whatever. I doubt it wants to fight, so let's just slide around it. It's only like, what, thirty yards? Easy."
May backed against the far wall and began to sidestep down the corridor, Brendan and Astra following suit. Astra skidded along awkwardly, her hat making it harder than expected to keep flat against the wall. If she were alone it would be a simple matter to just teleport down the hall, but that wasn't an option right now. She couldn't even risk trying to talk. With the way it was practically radiating fear, who knew what it would do if she spoke up?
Probably scream. Not ideal.
That said, it was well on its way to doing that already. The poor thing was basically frozen in place, and a low keening sound had replaced the sound of sniffling, growing louder with each step they took. Was it... whistling?
"This isn't working," May growled, coming to a stop. "We've only moved ten yards and it's already starting to sound like my damn tea kettle. How do these things function? We're not even doing anything!"
Brendan frowned. "The collapse yesterday must have the whole nest on edge. They're sensitive, but not this much. Not normally. The Aqua member barging through with a frantic Wingull in hand probably exacerbated the issue." He paused, then gave May a strange look. "You drink tea?"
"Oh my, yes," May drawled, her voice suddenly taking on a strange, airy inflection Astra couldn't place. "I just love to put a kettle of vintage Oddish blend on in the morning, really start the day off right you know is now the fucking time? Astra," May said, turning to the smaller girl. "Can't you like, music this guy asleep or something?"
Astra shook her head. "I left my violin at the hotel. I don't think I'd know how to do that, anyway?" She thought about what she'd practiced so far. Most of it had been battle songs, and improvised ones at that. She'd have to review the sheet music Trevor had gifted her. "Sorry."
"Damn. Brendan, any ideas?" May asked. "Cause all I've got is to try knocking it unconscious before it blows out my ears."
"Woah, no need for that." Brendan said, raising his hands up. He hesitated. "Well, there is one thing, maybe. I remembered something when you asked about music. Loudred—Whismur's evolution—usually sing to their children to lull them to sleep or calm them down, so..."
"You're going to sing?" Astra asked, surprised. "I didn't know you could sing."
"It's not singing," he clarified, "Just—humming, really."
"Well get on with it before it decides to blow," May said, jerking her head towards the still whistling Whismur.
Brendan sighed, then gave a single nod. Taking a step forward, he kneeled down, closed his eyes, and began to hum. It was a simple melody, but the sound echoed strangely, giving it an unexpected reverb.
The Whismur poked its head out, its kettle-like wailing having quieted to a mere sniffle. Brendan kept humming, and after a moment of hesitation the Whismur padded closer, examining him curiously. Then it began to whistle again and Astra braced for an explosion of noise.
But it never came. Instead, Whismur lifted its ears off its head, and it began to play what sounded like bird-song from two small holes in its scalp. The tune warbled, its player unfamiliar with the melody, and yet even its fumbling attempt lent Brendan's humming an air of eerie wistfulness in the echoing tunnel.
"It's... singing with you?" May asked, surprised. "Wow. That's... adorable."
"I kinda wanna hug it," Astra admitted, peeling herself off the wall to get a better look. She pointed at the now swaying Whismur, grinning cheerfully. "Look at its ears moving about! Ah, I bet it's soft!"
"Down, girl. No provoking the supersonic puffball."
"Aw," Astra pouted, listening to the song. It was pretty good, and Whismur used the echoing tunnel to great effect. Very relaxing, almost enough... to...
Astra yawned, then blinked and shook herself awake. She must've been more exhausted from the run than she thought. "Wish I had brought my violin," she said, "I would've liked to play along."
Brendan shot them a glance and rolled his eyes. Eventually his little tune came to an end, and a moment later so did the Whismur's whistling. It had come within inches of Brendan at this point, and looked up at him happily.
"Whismur wis!" It said, waiving it's stubby arms. That was fun! Astra mentally translated. She smiled; it seemed the danger had passed, for now.
"Hey there, uh," Brendan examined the Whismur for a moment, then smiled. "Hey girl. Sorry about the scare, we're just trying to find someone else who came through earlier."
Whismur suddenly shrank back, anxiety springing up in full force. Brendan frowned. "Did you cross paths with him? Did he do something scary or hurt you?" His face darkened as the Whismur nodded to both of his questions. "Well, me and my friends over there are trying to make him leave the tunnels. I'm sure you and your family would like that, right?"
Whismur perked up at his words, and nodded frantically. Or, Astra assumed so; Whismur didn't have a neck, so this movement consisted mostly of her rocking back and forth a few times.
"Whismur whis!" the Whismur said, pleadingly.
"We'll do our best, then!" Brendan agreed. "Can you show us where he went?"
Whismur hesitated, but an encouraging smile from Brendan seemed to set her nerves at ease. "Whismur!" she chirped, then turned and walked down the tunnel, turning back to see if they were following. "Whis!" she called, urging them on.
May squinted at Whismur, then at Brendan. She blinked. "Did you just turn the sound mine into our tour guide?"
"Seems so," Brendan said with a grin. "Pretty cool, huh?"
"That was really cool!" Astra agreed, giving Brendan a thumbs-up. "Good job!".
May shrugged. "It was alright."
Astra looked at May, confused. "Only alright? He just saved us a lot of trouble!"
"He only hummed, it wasn't that impressive," May defended. "I could've done that."
"But you didn't!"
"Guys, guys, it's fine," Brendan interjected. He motioned to the tunnel. "We have other things to worry about, right?"
The two girls glanced at each other, then looked at Brendan and nodded. "Right," they chorused.
Brendan grinned, and turned back to Whismur. "Lead on, little buddy," he said.
Whismur chirped and about-faced, trotting down the narrow passageway. Only a few steps behind, three trainers followed her into the darkness. Whismur began whistling cheerfully, a sort of meandering tune with no greater structure resounding through the tunnel.
"Is she... supposed to be doing that?" May asked, glancing from Whismur to Brendan. "I thought we were trying to be quiet?"
"Well, we were, but this is her home, so... I'd say she can do whatever she wants?" Brendan replied, shrugging.
"I guess."
Something moved in the corner of Astra's vision. She turned, and saw a small side passage in the rock wall. In it, another Whismur was lurking in the shadows, turning to track them as they went. Astra stared back, a little unsettled. It tilted its head, listening to the whistle from its cousin.
Then it smiled, and waved. "Whis," it said, barely audible even in the silence.
Astra stared at it for a moment, then hesitantly waved back. The Whismur smiled even wider, and then vanished as the tunnel passed from view
But then a sharp curse made Astra look in May's direction. She was looking at another side passage, with two Whismurs inside. The Whismur stared at the group, waved, and then disappeared as the side passage fell behind.
Soon enough, another side tunnel appeared with three Whismur within. Then five. And then a dozen or more, watching from hidden alcoves, quiet susurrations filling the air as the group passed by.
"Is anyone else starting to get creeped out?" May asked, eyeing yet another passageway nervously. Several pairs of cross-split eyes stared back, unblinking.
"They were cute at first, but now..." Astra trailed off, shuffling toward the middle of the tunnel.
"It's okay, this is—everything is fine," Brendan said, though even he was glancing about warily. "People pass through here all the time. They're probably just making sure we're not here to cause any more trouble."
Were they? Astra glanced at yet another tunnel full of staring Whismur. Why were they all gathering here? Was it their tour guide's whistling? What did it mean? Frowning, Astra reached out and gently brushed against the Whismurs' surface thoughts.
New friends! Aid! Expel Noisemaker. Hungry. Brother sleeping! Sing!
The contents rushed into Astra's mind, and she blinked as she processed the concepts within. Huh. So their Whismur was just alerting all the other Whismur that Astra and the others were here to help? Thoughtful of her. Though, who was 'Brother'?
Astra abruptly noticed that the whistling had stopped. She blinked, refocusing on the situation. The Whismur they had been following had frozen, staring into the intermittently lit tunnel ahead. Astra looked around. The Whismurs that had been not-so-stealthily following them had fallen back, now cowering in various corners.
"What's going on?" Astra began to ask, but Brendan held up a finger and made a shushing sound.
"Listen," he said, frowning.
Astra listened. Echoing softly from further down the tunnel, the faint sound of grinding stones and cursing could be heard, along with the mournful squawks of a bird. Her eyes narrowed. That sound was coming from just around the bend.
"That must be him," she said. "Peeko too."
"So it seems," Brendan agreed. He turned to their guide, patting the Whismur on the head. Whismur sniffed and looked up at him. He grinned. "Thanks for bringing us this far. We'll take it from here. Stay safe, alright?"
Whismur sniffed again, then hugged Brendan's leg. He blinked in surprise, then smiled and patted Whismur once more. Releasing her grip, the Whismur backed up. "Whismur!" she said, giving him one last worried look. Good luck. Then she bounded away, to wait alongside the other Whismur.
Turning back, Brendan retrieved a pokeball and turned at May and Astra. "Right," he said. "Let's do this. Come on out, Mudkip!"
"Just what I wanted to hear," May said, grinning. "Let's go, Torchic!"
"Rise and shine, Treecko!" Astra called, tossing her own into the air. "We've got a bird to rescue!"
Three flashes of light heralded each trainer's closest companion. They looked around curiously, and Torchic squawked at the horde of Whismur lurking in the shadows. Mudkip and Treecko looked similarly unsettled, but when the Whismur made no motion to attack they relaxed and looked to their trainers for instruction.
Astra, May, and Brendan looked at each other one last time, nodded in unison, and began to walk, pokemon trailing close behind. The faint cursing grew louder and louder, as did the squawking of a panicked bird. A small barricade came into view, presumably set up to discourage any curious Whismur that wandered near. It was made of solid wood panelling that covered the entire tunnel, and bright light shone from under the door.
Astra grimaced at the frantic despair audible in the voice of the Wingull. It clearly was not happy about its separation. The man inside didn't seem too thrilled either.
"Wingull! Wingull wingull gull gull wing—!" Peeko cried out, muffled wing flaps beating against something hard and unyielding.
"Would you shut up, you stupid bird!?" A voice inside yelled, and there was the sharp clang of a foot hitting metal. Peeko yelped, then fell silent.
All three trainers narrowed their eyes, but it was May that took action. "So you wanna make some noise, bastard?" she said, striding up to the door. She lined herself up, raised a foot, and grinned.
"Then let's get this party started."
May kicked, and the door crashed open. Everyone rushed inside, with Treecko, Torchic, and Mudkip taking the lead.
"Let that Wingull go!" Astra roared as she charged in, then recoiled as a bright light briefly blinded her. Blinking the spots away, she took a quick glance around the room.
The site of the collapse was quite a bit different from the mostly clear tunnel before it. New, temporary support beams had been placed in the middle of the corridor, and tools and supplies were meticulously sorted on top of a few long tables. A pile of rubble embedded with scattered bits of shattered wood and metal had completely buried the passage, and there were signs there had been quite a bit more at one point, broken down and transported elsewhere by means unknown. A few yards before the blockage, a strange machine hummed and shook, feeding power through a few black cables and into the three powerful lamps that had blinded Astra, which thoroughly illuminated the entire work site.
And right next to the giant pile of rocks, the Aqua grunt was looking back at them, holding a thoroughly embedded pickaxe and looking absolutely flabbergasted. He looked absolutely dishevelled and reeked of dried sweat, and his eyes frantically looked over them, panic and fatigue roiling off him in waves. Next to him, an upturned wheelbarrow shook as Peeko flailed about within. A hole had been dug out of the rubble behind him; just large enough for a man to crawl through and surprisingly deep, but still far from finished.
"You!?" the Aqua grunt yelped, taking a step back.
"Us," Brendan confirmed. Mudkip, Treecko, and Torchic stepped forward, interposing themselves between the trainers and the grunt. Brendan waved, giving the blue-clad man a mocking smile. "Hello!"
"We're here for the bird and the briefcase," May growled. "Hand 'em over, now."
"Damn brats..." The Aqua grunt's hand inched towards the pokeballs on his belt. He glared. "Don't you know you're messing with the wrong people? You'll regret making enemies of Team Aqua!"
Team Aqua this, Team Aqua that, Astra was beginning to get sick of hearing that name. He kept spouting it off like it was some magic phrase that would let him get away with whatever he wanted.
"Yeah, well, there's nobody here but you right now," Astra countered. "And there's three of us, so don't even think about fighting back! We'll just thrash you like last time."
The grunt's hand stilled, and he glared even harder. "Fine. If I can't beat you like that..." His eyes dated to the side, and he grinned. "Then I'll just have to get my hands dirty!"
The grunt lunged toward the wheelbarrow and kicked it over. Now revealed, a moderately sized white bird squawked and burst into the air. In a snap, the grunt's hand closed around its neck in a vice grip. The bird screeched, wings flapping wildly as he interposed the flailing wingull between himself and everyone else.
"Peeko!" Astra gasped. He was really going that far? Were there no lows this guy wouldn't stoop to?
"You think a damn bird is gonna stop me?" May demanded, striding forward with a fist raised. "Come over here and fight me face to face, asshole!"
"Wingull!" Peeko croaked out, struggling furiously. The grunt's grip tightened and Peeko quieted with a distressed gurgle. The grunt grinned as May froze, Astra and Brendan gasping in shock behind her.
"No, I don't think I will. Can't do anything while I'm holding this bird, can you?" he sneered, waving the Wingull around a bit. "Guess this was a good idea after all."
"Coward," May growled, but lowered her fist.
"I can't believe a member of Team Aqua would do something like this," Brendan said, disbelievingly. He shot the man a pleading look. "Aren't you guys supposed to promote environmentalism? How exactly does theft and holding pokemon hostage protect the ocean? Hell, that's Mr. Briney's Wingull," Brendan stressed. "He's a regional hero! He advocated for your group in the past; how could you do this to him!?"
The blue clad man hesitated, then shook his head. "I suppose it is a shame that he got caught up in all this. I respect the man, but our goals are more important than one crusty sailor. Times change, and Archie's got a new plan that'll wash across Hoenn like a tsunami!" He grinned, teeth shining in the floodlights. "And if we gotta dirty our sails to see it through, well, I'm no stranger to swabbing decks. So how about all of you shut the hell up, or else this bird is gonna get it. Get it?"
No, Astra did not. She wasn't going to 'get' anything for this jerk and she didn't care for anyone who trampled on innocent old men to get their way! He had to go down. Peeko posed a problem, however. As long as he held onto the bird's neck, they couldn't do anything without risk of the man... escalating. May and Brendan didn't seem to have any ideas. May was just clenching and unclenching her hands, glaring at the grunt, and the thug had just shut down Brendan's attempt at talking. Torchic and Mudkip were likewise unable to help, as May and Brendan had no means of telling them to do anything without incurring the man's wrath.
But Astra could use Treecko silently. That could give her the element of surprise she needed. Maybe he could shoot the grunt's hand? She hesitated. From the way the man's eyes were flickering, he was closely tracking every movement their pokemon made. He would assuredly notice when Treecko made an attack.
So that just meant that she needed an opening. And she knew exactly how to make one. Astra stared at the man and focused, bringing the slightest amount of power to bear.
"Now here's what you're gonna do." The Aqua grunt continued, sneering. "You're all gonna stay right here, while I—"
PING
The Aqua grunt twitched violently and let out a strangled yelp, clutching his head as a spike of telepathic noise assaulted his mind. Astra grinned, and Treecko took a sharp breath.
Bullet seed.
Light shone, and a barrage of glowing seeds dug into the man's hand, causing him to jerk back with a scream. Peeko screeched and burst out of his grip, speeding past the trainers and crashing against the barricade behind them. Spotting the open door, she burst through and sped down the tunnel, cawing madly. May and Brendan looked after the vanishing Wingull, blinking owlishly. Slowly, everyone turned to face the Aqua grunt, who was staring at the vanishing bird in horror.
"I'm sorry," Astra said, cheerfully. "I didn't quite catch that. What were you saying?"
The Aqua grunt swallowed nervously as May and Brendan's gazes hardened. "Y-you little brats!" he growled, still full of bravado. But there was a hitch in his voice now, and the way his eyes darted wildly from Torchic to Treecko to Mudkip and back again made it clear what he was really feeling. "Once Team Aqua hears about this you'll regret-!"
"Torchic?" May asked. "Ember."
Astra's eyes widened as Torchic puffed up. She was going to set the grunt on fire? Wasn't that going a bit far!?
But before she could protest, Torchic let loose. The Aqua grunt yelped as he dove away from a jet of flame. "Wait, wait, stop! I surrender!" he pleaded, holding his hands up. "Stop the fire! Stop the fire you crazy bitch!"
"Then you shut the hell up about your stupid little gang!" May roared. She strode forward and grabbed the thug by his shirt collar, yanking him down to eye level. "Newsflash, idiot: they're not here, and judging by how weak you are, I wouldn't be worried even if they were! So go ahead, tell your buddies about how you got your ass kicked twice. I'm sure that'll go down just swell."
She grinned. "Oh, wait. Nevermind. You're going to jail, so nobody's finding out jack. Sucks to be you, huh?"
"Y-you..." The grunt gulped, eyes flickering between May and the faintly smoking Torchic eyeing him like his next snack. "You'll regret this." he choked out.
"So I've heard." May rolled her eyes and pushed him away. The grunt stumbled and fell to the ground with a yelp. "Light him up if he tries anything, Torchic. Now," She turned, looking around. "You guys get the briefcase?"
Astra and Brendan shared an uneasy look, but turned to search the tunnel without protest. A brief search revealed the stolen item located on the nearby table. Astra grabbed it, then almost fell over once it succumbed to gravity. "Oof! What is in this thing?" she complained, dragging it over to the door. "Ugh. You take this," she said, passing it to Brendan. "I can't carry that."
"Yeah, I got it," Brendan said, hefting it up with a grunt. "Woah, you weren't kidding," he said, letting it rest on the floor for a moment.
"Heavy, you say?" May asked, leaving the pokemon to keep watch on the grunt. "Ooh, new theory: it's full of gold bars!"
"I was really holding out for that soup recipe, personally," Astra admitted. She slumped. "But I guess it wouldn't weigh that much."
Brendan gave them a strange look, considered the suitcase for a moment, then shook his head. "Probably not. Devon doesn't deal in gold. Or, uh. Soup. I'd hazard a guess at... Hm. Parts for something." Brendan frowned at May. "Backing up a bit, May, you really shouldn't threaten people like that. What if he had actually gotten burned?"
"Pff. He would've been fine," May said, waving Brendan off. "Maybe he'd learn his lesson if he did."
That was... a bit more flippant than Astra was comfortable with. Brendan seemed to agree, and he looked at May with clear disapproval. "We're not the ones who get to decide how he gets punished," he chided. "Trainers like us aren't supposed to use pokemon against people without good cause."
"What, is assault and theft not a good cause?" May scoffed. "He attacked us, I'd say that's reason enough!"
"Self defence is fine, but threatening him when we've already won is a different matter," Brendan stressed. He sighed. "I know he hurt you, but please don't get carried away. It's... concerning."
"Tch. Whatever," May muttered. She looked away, stalking towards the door. "Let's just go already."
"Ah, yeah," Astra said, still unsure. She did agree with Brendan, but May did have a point. The Aqua member had nearly deafened both them and an entire street of onlookers. Some form of retribution was warranted. But she had expected May to punch the man in the face, not try to set him on fire.
She shook her head; there would be enough time to sort through all that later. For now, they had to get the briefcase back to the city. "Alright, you!" Astra said, turning to the Grunt. "We're taking you back to Rustboro. Get on your feet, you've got a lot to answer for!"
"Anyone got any rope, or anything?" Brendan asked, looking around. A pair of negatives had him shaking his head. "Drat. I would have liked to tie his hands up, at least. Well, walk in front and keep your hands in the air." He said, giving the thug a sharp look. "Don't try anything funny, either."
"Damn brats," The grunt muttered, raising his arms as instructed. He marched out of the room, followed closely by Treecko, Torchic and Mudkip. Astra, May, and Brendan brought up the rear, watching the thief carefully.
Astra blinked rapidly as they left the bright floodlights behind, the natural darkness of the tunnel reasserting itself. Her eyes adjusted quickly, and she noticed a Whismur, the one Brendan had befriended, was standing a bit further into the tunnel, poking her head out from behind a support pillar. Whismur shied back when she noticed the Aqua grunt walking towards her, but brightened as she spotted Brendan just behind him.
"Whismur whis!" she cheered, waving a stubby arm. "Whis!" She seemed to be saying, "You did it! I knew you could!"
Brendan waved back, and Astra smiled at the sight, a warm feeling in her chest. Mission accomplished. And once they left, the Whismur could return to their peaceful lives.
Or, at least, what counted for peace when humanity had apparently decided to expand a tunnel in the middle of their warren into a thoroughfare. That was... actually fairly alarming, now that Astra thought about it. She glanced at the tunnel walls, their surfaces noticeably smoother than the varied offshoots. It seemed that if humanity wanted a passage, they didn't much care about whom they disturbed so long as they got their way. More reason for her village to be wary, she supposed.
The Whismur edged around the Grunt, who shot it a narrow eyed glance, before waddling up to Brendan and chirping happily.
Brendan kneeled down and patted her on the head, grinning. "Hey, we're back. Everything went fine, and now we've gotta get this guy out of your hair and back to our city."
Whismur frowned and tugged at Brendan's pant leg. It lifted an ear and whistled a short tune, similar to the one Brendan had hummed earlier, then tugged at his pant leg again. "Whismur?" she asked, staring at him hopefully.
Brendan blinked, then shook his head and gave her a sad smile. "Sorry, Whismur. I can't stay. We've really gotta get this guy out of here, and I've got places to go as well. I might be able to come back some other time, but this is it."
Whismur drooped. Brendan thought for a moment. "You could see us out, if you want," he offered. Whismur perked back up, letting out a cheerful whistle.
The Aqua grunt made an annoyed sound. "Are we going or not?" he snapped, glaring backwards.
"Shut it, you," May said, returning the glare. "And keep those arms up!" She paused, then turned to Astra. "He's not wrong," she muttered, glancing at Brendan and Whismur chatting happily to the side. "I can't tell if this is still adorable or has transitioned into gag-inducing sappiness."
Astra just shrugged. She didn't have any issue with taking a bit of time to say goodbye. It was only a minor delay, after all. "Sounds like a 'you' problem."
"Tch." May snorted, hiding a smile. "Getting a mouth on you, shorty."
Whismur led them along the tunnel, tugging at Brendan's pant leg until he took the lead, leaving their prisoner in the middle of the group.
As they walked, a chipper hum echoed in the stagnant air, a quiet whistle following the rhythm. The side tunnels repopulated with the other Whismur as they passed, all staring at the visitors with trepidation. Their stares were still creepy, but at least they wouldn't have to deal with them much longer. Astra estimated they were nearly halfway out by now, and it would only be a few minutes until she could see the sun again. Thankfully the Aqua grunt kept quiet throughout the walk, but Astra didn't like how he kept shooting looks toward the gathered Whismur. Was he up to something?
"Okay, the sing-song clinched it. This is annoying," May decided, breaking Astra out of her thoughts. "Fuck, we'd better get out of here soon. The whistling is gonna drive me mad."
Astra tilted her head. "It's not that bad, though?"
"Well, maybe not, but the echo is messing with me," May grumbled, "Still not a fan of being watched like this either." She shot a glance at the horde of Whismur in the walls. When she looked ahead again, she paused. "Hey!" May snapped, causing everyone to tense. "I said keep your hands in the air!"
"My arms are tired, brat," the Aqua grunt shot back, turning to face them with a scowl. His arms had indeed been lowering, his left hand slowly inching toward his face. "And my nose itches. What, can't I scratch my damn nose?"
"Not on my watch, buddy!" May snarled. "Hands back up, now!"
"I just wanna scratch my nose," the grunt repeated. "It's not gonna kill you."
He smirked, and a flash of emotion thrummed through the air, and Astra's eyes widened. "He's lying!" she yelled, sending a frantic message to Treecko. "Take him down!"
Springing into action, Treecko spat a flurry of bullet seeds and leapt forward, bringing his tail around in an arc. Dropping his arms, the Aqua grunt blocked the bullets with his forearm, cradling his head as Treecko landed a brutal slam across his forearms. In response, the Grunt stared directly at Astra, grinned, then shoved his finger and thumb into his mouth. Then, he blew.
A deafening whistle pierced the air, echoing off the tunnel walls. It lasted only a moment before Mudkip tackled the grunt in the abdomen, sending him staggering backwards—only for Brendan to come in and shove the man to the ground and kneel on his back, throwing the briefcase past May and Astra.
"What are you doing?" Brendan hissed, pinning the grunts' arms to his back. "Whistling? Here? Do you want to bring the whole warren down on our heads!?"
"That's the plan, genius!" The grunt crowed. A sick grin crawled across his face. "And judging by little miss waterworks over there, well. I hope you brought earplugs!"
Brendan opened his mouth, then paused. His eyes widened, and Astra had just a moment to process the grunt's words herself before the first sniffle pierced the air. Every head in the room turned toward the crowd of Whismur in the side tunnel. They were shaking, tears pooling at the corners of their eyes. The one who had sniffled stood at the forefront, and their breath hitched when they noticed several sets of eyes had abruptly focused on them.
The Whismur shook violently, took a step back, and hiccuped. Their ears stood on end, and a piercing whistle began to sound.
"Oh shit," May whispered.
It screamed. The noise hit them like a wall. A wordless cry of pure terror and fear, reverberating endlessly through the entire tunnel. And then it was joined by another, and another, and then almost every single Whismur in the warren was crying out in panic.
Astra clutched at her ears, her very thoughts being shredded by the sharp knife of the Whismurs' collective cry. To her side, May had fallen to her knees, desperately trying to plug hers. Her mouth moved, but nothing could be heard over the piercing din. Brendan had fallen over, teeth grit and eyes clenched. The Aqua grunt had curled into a ball, hands on his head. Treecko and Mudkip were grimacing, but Torchic had collapsed to the ground, twitching.
Astra did not know how long their scream lasted.
But, after a seeming eternity, it came to an abrupt stop: a long, low howl from far away halted the Whismurs' cacophony. Astra looked around as it sounded again, closer. Next to her, May shook her head and stood, glancing about warily while Brendan took hold of the Aqua grunt once more The rock of the mountain trembled, the tunnel shook, and Astra felt the vibration in her very bones. A voice like the deepest of horns thundered from deep within the warren.
"I-it feels like the whole mountain is shaking!" Astra exclaimed, backing up against a wall. She could sense something approaching, its fury as prominent as an angry sun. "Wh-what is that!?"
"Best guess?" Brendan said, staring into the now silent crowd of pokemon. "The Whismurs' patriarch."
Red eyes glared from the darkness. The Whismurs parted, and from the shadows emerged a new figure. A hulking blue animal of nearly five feet, his light red eyes glared balefully at the intruders. His head was brutish, a lowered brow crowned with a ridge of seven cylinders and paired with an terrifyingly wide jaw. His three-clawed feet carved gouges in the ground as he stomped forward, and his three-fingered hands clenched at its side. A pair of tails that looked like pipes jutted from the creature's rear and shook as air passed through, striking an impossibly deep reverberation into the air. He stared, brows furrowed, considering the group of trainers arrayed before him.
He didn't look happy. Astra swallowed, mouth dry. "Brendan? What is that?"
Her hopes were summarily dashed when the Exploud's eyes narrowed, and a low growl shook the air as he stepped forward. Astra heard the sound of scurrying feet, and she blinked when their Whismur interposed itself between the Exploud and the group.
"Whismur whis!" Whismur said, waving her arms frantically. "Whis!"
Exploud halted, considering Whismur for a moment. His gaze panned across the group again, and a bit of the building fury seemed to sputter. "Exploud?" he asked, a surprisingly complex series of whistles and horns accompanying his words.
For a moment, Whismur looked off balance. "Whis?" she asked, as if surprised that Exploud hadn't immediately brushed her aside. She brightened. "Whis! Whismur whis!"
Exploud grumbled, the accompanying series of whistles sounding quite annoyed. He seemed to be calming down, rage being slowly replaced by annoyance and suspicion. Astra shared a hopeful glance with May and Brendan. Maybe they'd still be able to get out okay!
"I cannot believe your little puffball is saving our ass again," May murmured, glancing at Brendan.
"I make good friends," Brendan said, smiling. May rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, no," the Aqua grunt interjected. He bucked, throwing Brendan off and twisting to his feet in one smooth motion. "I'm not letting my chance slip away that easy! Even if I can't finish the job, I can at least toss you brats to the sharks!"
Exploud's gaze snapped to the Aqua grunt. Treecko and Mudkip turned, already preparing attacks. Torchic, however, was still on the floor, dazed from earlier. The grunt eyed the bird and grinned. He sprung forward, dashing through a burst of seedshot and water, and snatched Torchic straight off the ground. The bird squawked, then began pecking wildly at the grunt's fingers.
"Torchic!" May screamed, scrambling to her feet. "Let him go!"
"Oh, gladly," the grunt said, smile widening. He turned toward Exploud. "Hey ugly!"
Exploud looked at the Grunt. The grunt drew back his arm.
"Catch!" he called, then hurled Torchic directly at Exploud's face.
May cried out, reaching toward her pokemon uselessly. Brendan tackled the Grunt again, trying to wrestle him to the ground once more. Astra reached out, reflexively calling on her power to snatch the bird from the air—
What if they see?
—then stopped, fear and hesitation halting her in her tracks. And then it was too late.
Torchic flew, and Exploud recoiled as the flailing bird bounced off his nose. A giant fist snatched the bird from the air, then hauled him in front of the giant, hulking face. Exploud growled. Torchic, frightened out of his mind, shot a burst of flame into Exploud's eyes.
Exploud roared, the cavern shaking from the sheer force of its outburst. He dropped the fiery bird and howled in fury, scratching at his face. Torchic scrambled to his feet and dashed to May, chirping wildly.
"Move!" Brendan bellowed, sprinting down the tunnel. Astra was a quarter-step behind him when May abruptly grabbed her arm and hauled her in the other direction. The Whismurs scattered, fleeing down the tunnels. Howling, Exploud charged blindly after Torchic and just barely missed Astra and May, crashing into the tunnel wall and blasting the area in a thick cloud of dust and stone shards.
"Holy shit!" May yelped, dragging Astra further down the corridor, Torchic and Treecko close at their heels. "That would've pancaked us! You're welcome, by the way," she added, looking at Astra.
Astra grunted, rubbing at her wrist as May finally let go. She stood up on shaky legs, brushing herself off. "Thanks, but did you have to drag me?"
"You're too slow," May replied, bending down to give Torchic a reassuring scritch. "Exploud would've run right over you. At least I got us to safety."
Something moved, and Astra's head snapped toward the dust cloud. "Not for long," she warned, staring at the rising shadow. Maddened red eyes turned sharply in their direction. Astra took a step backward, swallowing nervously. "Exploud's between us and the exit, and he looks really mad!"
"Where's Brendan?" May asked, standing back up. Torchic stood in front of her, feathers puffed.
Astra hesitated. She could sense the grunt's Zubat trying to take bites out of Brendan's Mudkip, and Brendan himself stood between the grunt and the exit. Astra felt like banging her head against the wall. Why hadn't they taken his pokemon!? "He was on the other side with the Aqua guy. If he's not here, he might have his hands full."
"Tch, so no help there. Well, dead end behind us, one hell of a monster in front, alone together." May reached back and tightened her bandana, staring at the figure in the dust. "I guess it's a fight!"
Astra looked at the huge hole in the rock and wished she knew where May got all of her confidence from. Personally, she would have felt a lot better if the tunnel wasn't so cramped. Being able to overwhelm Exploud with sheer numbers would have been nice, but there just wasn't any room for them to not get in each other's way. "He looks really strong. Do you think we can win?"
"Don't really have a choice, do we? It's do or die, Astra!" May grinned, looking just a bit manic. "Besides, we've made it out with worse odds, haven't we?"
Astra shot May a flat look. "I wouldn't really call that one a 'fight'. And we didn't win, either. But," she sighed, "I suppose you aren't wrong."
"That's the spirit," May said, cheerfully. "Try not to die."
The sound of heavy footfalls silenced their chat. Exploud emerged from the dust cloud, face contorted into a rictus of pure rage. "LOUD!" he roared, sound blasting through the tunnel.
Astra gulped, paling at the sight. She really didn't want to fight. Maybe she could still reason with him...? "Wait, please stop!" she pleaded, trying to form a link to Exploud. "It wasn't our fault! We didn't—"
RAGE. The connection broke. Astra gasped, reeling.
"LOOOUD!" Exploud screamed, louder, longer, and leaving Astra's ears ringing once again. He inhaled, all the pipes on his body whistling as they sucked in vast quantities of air.
"Fine then!" Astra snapped, pointing forward. If he wouldn't listen to reason, then she wouldn't hold back! "Treecko, bullet seed!" Aim for his throat!
"EXPLO—urk!?" Exploud gagged as a barrage of golden seeds flew into his gaping maw. He coughed and slammed his chest, the holes on his body letting out a wheezing bleat with each blow.
"Alright Torchic," May called, raising a clenched fist and sweeping it out. "Light him up!"
Torchic chirped, and a stream of fire scorched across Exploud, leaving a singed black streak up his leg and across his torso. The fur along the edges shone in a fiery gradient, creeping outwards at a painful crawl. Exploud gurgled, pawing at the burn mark. He coughed, spat onto the ground, and roared in pain. Eyes blazing, he glared at the two pokemon arrayed against him. Thin smoke wafted from his fur, and Exploud growled. He charged toward Torchic, arm cocked back.
Astra scowled, thinking rapidly. Exploud was large, and with the way he walked off that impact with the wall, she was betting he had toughness to spare. Physical attacks wouldn't do much; she'd have to focus on hitting weak points or bypassing his physical defence entirely.
"Treecko, climb on his back and use absorb!" Astra commanded a moment later.
"Torchic, dodge!" May shouted.
Torchic jumped backward. Exploud's fist descended, stone fragments scattering as the ground where Torchic had stood was pulverized. From the side, Treecko lept. He landed on Exploud's back and scuttled upwards toward his crown of horns. Holding on for dear life, Treecko slammed a needle-ridden hand into the back of Exploud's skull and pulled, siphoning away thin streams of verdant energy
Exploud jerked, twisting around and taking a wild swing at thin air. He turned around once more before realizing that something was clinging to his head. Bellowing in frustration, he awkwardly pawed at his back, the horns on his head preventing his arms from reaching all the way. Giving up on that, Exploud turned and slammed his back against the wall. Only a quick command and subsequent evacuation saved Treecko from being flattened against the now broken stone.
"Focus up, Torchic!" May ordered. "Hit him where it hurts! Ember!"
Torchic inhaled, and then spat fire across Exploud, scoring a direct hit against his lower abdomen. Exploud howled as the scorch marks spread, the air filling with the smell of charred fur. Attention now thoroughly grabbed, he set his sight on Torchic and bellowed once more, charging towards the diminutive bird.
"Shit. Torchic, dodge again!" May called, urgently.
Torchic squawked as he narrowly dodged between Exploud's legs, barely escaping as a foot stomped down where he had been, the heavy impact causing a small shockwave. Torchic tripped and tumbled, rolling a short distance down the tunnel before coming to a stop, dazed. Exploud turned around, the promise of brutal vengeance pounding with every step he took.
A few golden seeds whizzed through the air, battering Exploud across the arm and the side of his head. Exploud paused, gaze flicking to Treecko, who clung to the top of a support pillar. Exploud turned away with a growl, ignoring the potshots that Treecko shot at his back.
"It's not working!" Astra said, panicked. "He's ignoring Treecko!"
"Shit, I was hoping we could've kept ping-ponging him. I gotta get Torchic out of there!" May said, holding out Torchic's pokeball. A laser shot out and hit Explouds leg, dissipating uselessly. May hesitated, half leaning from side to side. Another laser shot out, but was interrupted by Exploud once again. A flicker of worry flashed across her face. "I— I can't get an angle," she said, paling. "Torchic, run!"
Torchic wobbled to his feet, shaking his head. He looked back, baulked at the giant barreling down at him, and fled, cawing wildly. His speed, however, was no match for Exploud's maddened speed, the beast catching up in four thundering strides and swiping at Torchic, clipping him in the side and sending him spinning into the wall with a dull thunk..
"Torchic!" May cried, reaching out. Astra grabbed onto May's shirt, barely stopping the taller girl from running directly into battle. May growled, nearly yanking Astra off her feet as she dragged the smaller girl forward. "Get away from him or I'll turn your skull into a fucking bagpipe!"
"May, stop!" Astra yelled, struggling to hold her footing. "You'll get hurt!" She looked at her own pokemon in a panic, "Treecko, stop Exploud! Bullet Seed! Absorb! Something!"
But though Treecko shot seed after seed, each one leaving dark bruises or shallow scrapes, Exploud ignored them all. Another booming step took him to where Torchic lay, and he raised a foot, intent on ending the threat once and for all.
Treecko scrambled forward, hands glowing green but far too slow and weak. Astra's breath caught. May reached out, eyes wide. Exploud's foot descended.
"Mudkip, Mud-Slap!"
A blob of brown muck shot into Exploud's eyes. The giant flinched, his foot missing Torchic by the smallest of margins as he bellowed in pain, wiping at his eyes. Then he roared once more as Treecko hit the back of his head like a missile. Slamming back into a wall to dislodge Treecko, Exploud scraped at the gunk covering his face. Torchic staggered to his feet and fled back to May, a parting shot leaving Exploud's back as scorched as his front.
"Torchic!" May exclaimed, scooping the bird into her arms and shaking off Astra's grip. "You're okay!" she said, exhaling in relief. Torchic chirped, and she flicked him on the head. "Dude, you really gotta stop getting into these bad spots."
"Hey guys!" a voice called. Mudkip came barreling into view, followed closely by Brendan. He gave them a tired grin. "Need some help?"
"Brendan!" Astra said, brightening. Maybe they'd stand a chance now that it was three on one! "Good timing! Now we can—" she paused, noticing a distinct lack of a certain blue jerkwad. "Wait, where's the Aqua guy?"
Brendan grimaced. "Had to let him go. You guys were facing off against an Exploud and it would have taken me way too long to deal with him. There just wasn't any way I was going to let you two do this alone!"
May let out a bark of laughter. "My hero," she said, rolling her eyes with a grin. She pulled out a potion and sprayed Torchic with it, the bird perking up and ruffling his feathers. She set him down and turned to Exploud, eyes blazing. "Thanks for the save. Now, let's kick this guy's ass! Torchic, Ember!"
"With you all the way!" Astra cheered. With all three of them here, fighting as a team for the first time, it made Astra giddy. It was a moment worthy of song, and Astra suddenly found herself dearly wishing she had her violin. Her fingers twitched, pressing down imaginary strings. "Treecko, Bullet Seed, then Absorb!" Make him choke, and drain him while he's distracted!
"If we keep him off balance and chip him down, our victory is assured!" Brendan said. He pointed at Exploud, voice firm. "Mudkip, blind him with Mud-Slap!"
Exploud had meanwhile wiped the last of the previous mud from his face and was inhaling deeply, the tubes on his body making a deep vibration. "EX—!" he screamed, but cut off as Treecko flipped off his head and fired yet another golden seed into his maw.
Exploud choked again, and then a fresh ball of mud slapped across his eyes. He wheezed, furiously scraping the muck away. Flickering light shone, and then flame burst across his back, scarring him further. The three smaller pokemon easily dodged the blind swipes that followed, and Treecko lept on Exploud's back to siphon off more energy.
"That's how you do it!" Astra cheered. "Now, just keep it going and—eh?" Astra cut herself off, uneasy. Something in the air had changed. Her eyes flicked across the scene, searching for the aberration. It took her a moment to realize that Exploud wasn't screaming. More concerningly, his fury was gone.
He was still mad; the depths of his loathing an incomprehensible, frightening abyss. But it no longer burned. It had instead crystalized into a dark, cold hatred. Exploud stood up, one giant hand digging into the mud caking his face and scraping it away. A deep, rumbling whistle began to emanate from his many horns.
"Hah, that trick again? Keep trying, windbag, I'm sure it'll work out this time" May cackled, unconcerned by the repetitive display. "Just do yourself a favor and give up, or else me and Torchic will turn your ass to ash! Ember!"
Another stream of fire raced across Exploud's side, and the reverberation intensified. Exploud turned and slammed his back against the wall, Treecko jumping off and narrowly avoiding getting squished. Exploud's arms shot up, blocking the retaliatory bullets and mud balls.
Red eyes glared in the darkness, and Astra was quite suddenly reminded that they were not fighting a novice. Exploud had, in fact, evolved twice. It had been defending these caves for what had to be quite a long time, against targets far stronger than they.
And it wasn't an idiot.
Exploud's eyes narrowed, staring at Torchic, then slowly drifting towards May. The humming stopped, only to be replaced with a deep, whistling inhale. His arms raised, intercepting the burst of bullet seeds destined for the openings on his head. He opened his mouth, and the world seemed to hold its breath.
May paused, grin frozen on her face. Exploud opened his mouth. May paled. "Oh shi—"
Exploud screamed. An explosive roar, more physical than mere sound should ever be, erupted from his horns. It shook the earth and sent a shockwave of dust blasting through the tunnel. It blasted into Astra, forcing her to her knees and drowning out everything with a cacophony of pain.
"Stop it..." Astra choked out, clutching at her head. The din reverberated, hammering her ears in an unceasing tide. "Stop...!" she begged, pleading directly to Exploud. The noise continued, heedless of her anguish.
"I... said... stop!" Astra silently screamed, eyes squeezed shut. Power surged, Astra pushed, and suddenly the noise ceased. She looked up in confusion, vision hazy and head pounding like a drum. Next to her, May was similarly incapacitated, and she doubted Brendan was much better. She thought she could hear May swearing up a storm, but Astra could hardly make it out over the sharp ringing in her ears. Their pokemon were doggedly rising to their feet, stubborn even in the face of overwhelming power.
Ahead of them, Exploud was yanking his head out of the wall. Astra blinked, thoughts fuzzy and scattered. How had that happened? Exploud turned, face twisted into a horrid snarl. He took a few steps forward, and it took Astra a second to realize he was coming for them.
She shot to her feet, but stumbled as the world tilted and found herself lying flat on the floor, cheek stinging. She blearily lifted her head and found the bulky pokemon staring at her. Exploud considered Astra for a long moment, then snorted dismissively and moved on, stomping toward May. The girl was kneeling on the floor and clutching her head, groaning in pain. Exploud's eyes narrowed, and he raised a fist—
"TOR!"
A blast of flame burst across Exploud's hand, scorching the fur. He recoiled as Torchic rushed forward, standing guard over his trainer. May looked up, wincing. "What...?"
"Torchic tor!" Torchic screeched, blasting another bolt of fire. Exploud blocked the flame with his arm and glared. He raised a hand, then brought it down and cleanly backhanded Torchic into the wall. Stone crumbled, and the bird vanished under a pile of rubble.
"Torchic!" May sprung to her feet, lamely reaching for the fallen bird. Her hand clenched and she jerked to face Exploud, then recoiled, a snarled expletive dying in a whisper. May stared at Exploud, so close that her hair blew back with his breath. Red eyes glared into blue.
Astra watched in mounting horror as Exploud once more wound back. She reached for her power, but the agony from the scream lingered and it felt like all she could grab was a fist of broken glass. "May!" she yelled, struggling as the pain in her head spiked. "Run!"
A second passed. May jumped back. Exploud lashed out. A dull thump, a sharp exhalation, and suddenly May was flying through the air, rolling across the ground and coming to rest in a limp pile. She clutched at her side, eyes wide. She choked, then wheezed, sucking in air with pained, heaving gasps.
"May!" Astra screamed. A mirror of her cry rang out behind her.
Astra turned and saw Brendan, staggering forward with a hand on the wall and Mudkip at his feet. Treecko was draped across Mudkip's back. Why was Treecko on Mudkip's back? Treecko looked at her, bleary eyed and a little embarrassed.
Dizzy, he thought. Well, Astra could certainly understand that predicament all too well. The two shared a brief moment of mutual commiseration.
Brendan stared at Astra, wide-eyed, then glared at Exploud with grit teeth. The giant had begun to plod towards May again. "Water Gun!" he yelled to Mudkip, making a staggered run toward Astra. "Aim for his feet!"
Astra raised a hand and Brendan grabbed it, pulling her upright and causing the world to tilt again. Astra staggered, leaning against Brendan for support. Her head was still pounding, but she would still fight with whatever she had. Astra focused, the mere effort of sending a message wracking her mind. "Bullet Seed!"
Meanwhile, a blast of water struck Exploud's leg, and he stumbled, falling to one knee as one leg skidded across the wet floor. A growl permeated the air as a few bullet seeds ineffectually dug into his back. Exploud punched the floor and removed a large chunk of stone. Turning around, he roared and hurled the rock.
Astra saw the rock fly as if in slow motion. She could barely hear Brendan scream out his own order as she begged them to move, but Mudkip was still stunned from the roar and Treecko was too slow at getting off his back and the stone was moving too fast—
There was the sound of rock hitting flesh, an all too horrifying spike of pain, and then silence.
"No..." Astra whispered, reaching out toward the fallen green form. She could see Treecko move, sheer grit overcoming the agony she could still feel ripping across their bond. Even Mudkip was still crawling forwards. After all of that, they still had enough determination to try? Astra would have been proud of them, if not for the despair that had swallowed her heart.
Exploud stomped toward the fallen trainer. May wheezed, slowly uncurling from the ball she had huddled into. She looked up, squinting at the figure towering above her.
Then, she laughed. A short, giggling thing bordering on hysterical. "Come on, big guy," she taunted, eyes wild. She stared, grinning maniacally. "Was that your best shot?"
Exploud snarled, and raised a fist.
"May!" Brendan screamed and let go of Astra, gently dropping her to the floor. He staggered forward, arm outstretched as if to simply pluck her away from danger.
Astra grit her teeth and desperately tried to gather power. An endless onslaught of sharp teeth gnash at her head, but despite all her effort, what little she could muster passed through her grasp like fog. She gasped in pain, abandoned the attempt, and looked at May, wondering if it would be the very last time she could.
May met her panicked gaze. Then, to Astra's utter bafflement, she smiled. Something pricked at the edge of Astra's awareness. A familiar feeling. And at the last second, she noticed that it wasn't dark anymore.
Exploud roared, and brought his fist down.
A pile of rock shifted, then was thrown aside.
Light filled the hall.
Talons scraped on stone as they raced forward.
Thud.
Exploud's fist stopped, a pair of clawed hands blocking its fall.
"Hey, Torchic." May said, swaying. She grinned. "Good to see ya."
Torchic stood before May, clad in a brilliant white aura. But he had changed. His legs were longer, half hidden by a covering of orange feathers and thick with muscle. His talons—larger, darker, sharper—dug into the stone as the halted punch pressed down from above. Yellow plumage covered his upper body, and two feathered arms sprouted from what were once bits of fluff. Now-orange eyes glared up, widened beak clenched in effort. His crest twitched, now dyed crimson and twice as tall.
Astra stared at Torchic, stunned. Ahead, Brendan halted his mad dash, awed.
"That's no Torchic..." he said, faintly, then with a surge of cheer. "He's evolved into a Combusken!"
Exploud peered down at Combusken. "Loud?" he said, confused and outraged at the continued resistance. "Loud!?" he roared, pushing down even harder. Combusken grinned, dug his feet in, and began to push.
"Com—" he said, taking a step forward and shoving Exploud's arm back. Exploud grunted, then redoubled his assault. Combusken's guard buckled, but did not break.
"BUS—!" he shouted, heaving Exploud's fist aside. Exploud stumbled, knocked off balance by the throw. Combusken crouched, and then jumped.
"KEN!" Combusken crowed, a taloned foot delivering a devastating front kick to Exploud's jaw. Still in the air, Combusken spun around and slammed his other leg into Exploud's face. Something crunched, and Exploud reared back, falling to the ground and clutching his bloody nose.
"Combusken!" Combusken declared, flipping backwards and landing in a crouch. He stood in front of May, taking a rough stance and poised to strike.
"Oh hell that was cool," May breathed, slowly rising to her feet. She gave Combusken a shaky thumbs up. "Good job, buddy."
Astra watched Combusken preen, but couldn't help the dread still creeping in her mind. Combusken, fresh off his evolution and ready for round three—would he be enough? Exploud was still monstrously strong; fatigued, yes, but still able to break stone and scream at will. If Combusken messed up once...
Exploud held his nose, now dribbling crimson, and blared, a sound that May would describe as a fog horn blasting through the tunnel. He rose to his feet and charged at Combusken, a whistling bellow screeching from all horns.
"Get ready Combusken, May said, wheezing slightly. "Don't get hit!"
"Ken!" Combusken said, crouching down.
Exploud came at them, feet falling like meteors. He roared, cocked his fist back—and then a burst of slick mud rocketed under his foot from behind, Exploud flailing wildly as he skidded through the muck. His legs shot out and he fell onto his back, groaning. Astra blinked. Where had that come from?
As if to answer, a voice called out from behind. "Marsh," it said in a familiar, if deeper warble.
Brendan stiffened, then turned around, gaping. "Mudkip?" he whispered. Brendan paused, then grinned. "No. Marshtomp?"
Astra followed his gaze and stared. Mudkip, too, had changed. Twice as tall, the gills on his cheeks had narrowed and lengthened into spikes, and his three fins had darkened and grown larger. He walked up to Brendan, front legs now much longer and thinner.
"Stomp," Marshtomp said, crawling up to Brendan and brushing against his legs.
Brendan reached out, trailing a hand across Marshtomp back. Marshtomp rumbled, leaning into the touch. Brendan smiled. "Heh. You were that close, huh? I should've known. Alright then." He looked up, eyes shining. "Let's finish this!"
"Marsh!" Marshtomp agreed, turning back towards the Exploud.
Astra, feeling a bit like a bystander, lifted herself up a bit, resting on her forearms. Mudkip had evolved too? But wait, if Mudkip had, then where was—? Had he—? She could sense him, he was awake, and moving! Astra grunted, heaving herself to a kneeling pose, head swimming. She blinked, took a breath, and heaved herself up. Her vision lurched, but she had to see, she had to know. She turned—
But her world blurred and spun, and Astra felt herself falling again.
And then she stopped. Long, thin, green arms hugged her, halting her descent. Astra stared at them, confused. What was...?
She looked down, but not as far as she expected. Yellow eyes stared back into her own, familiar, yet different, filled with worry and flicking around to spot anything amiss.
His head was sleeker, more angular, a wider mouth curved into a worried frown. Eyes embedded inside instead of sticking up. A long, long piece of grass sprouted from the top of his scalp and trailed down his back, curling up at the end into a spiral. She could see two more poking from his lower back, and three each newly grown from his wrists.
They looked at each other for a moment, and then Astra smiled.
"You got taller," she mumbled. "It looks good."
He looked at her smile and relaxed, the frond on his head uncurling in relief. "Grovyle," Grovyle preened, hoisting his master upright.
Astra wobbled for a moment, then held still. She closed her eyes and just breathed for a second. The fog in her head cleared, if only a little, and she looked at Treecko. Or, Grovyle now, was it? He really had grown, Astra saw, a bit more than half as tall as she was.
"I don't think I'll be able to carry you anymore," Astra noted wistfully.
Grovyle blinked and examined Astra, then looked down at his new, much heavier form. He drooped. "Grove..." he whined, disappointed.
"You're just too big," Astra explained. "I doubt I could support that kind of weight." She grinned, glancing at the arms still holding her steady. "But I guess it's you who's supporting me, now. Right?"
Grovyle blinked, then rolled his eyes and smirked. "Vyle."
A loud roar interrupted them. Astra turned to see that Exploud had gotten up again. Combusken was kicking him relentlessly, a flash of fire accompanying each kick, while Marshtomp fired bullet after bullet of thick mud at Exploud's face and body. Exploud looked to be slowing down just a bit. Had all the fighting finally begun to take its toll?
Astra shook herself loose of Grovyle's arms and propped herself up at the wall. She looked at Grovyle and gestured at the battle, grinning.
"Shall we?" she asked.
Grovyle smirked and held up an arm. Green energy flowed across his skin, and the leaves on his wrists suddenly straightened out in a brilliant verdant glow.
"Grove," he said. Power.
Astra stared at the inexplicably sharp leaves, then grinned. "Heh. Well, that seems handy. Alright then." Astra straightened, readjusted her hat, and pointed at Exploud as dramatically as she could manage.
"Let's give it all we got, guys!" Astra yelled, newly energized. "Grovyle, Grass Cutter!"
Grovyle bent forward, then shot off in a blast of dust. Past Brendan, who ducked back in surprise. Past Marshtomp, firing salvo after salvo of mud. Ahead, Exploud faced Combusken. The kick-happy bird jumped, delivering a flurry of blows to Exploud's face. Exploud grunted and staggered back, his guard blown wide open. Grovyle darted up, and lept.
"Grovyle!" Grovyle yelled, and slashed down across Exploud's back.
Exploud roared in pain as a deep gash opened across his back, crimson dripping from shoulder to hip. He turned, eyes flickering between Grovyle, Marshtomp, and Combusken, and in Astra's senses a new emotion surfaced. Above the pain, and steadily supplanting the rage and the hate.
Fear.
"EXPLOUD!" Exploud bellowed, fist thundering toward his new assailant. Grovyle jumped back—
"Mud Shot!" Brendan called.
—and a jet of thick mud flew past, smacking Exploud across his arm and face. Exploud missed Grovyle and stumbled, shaking and scraping the mud off. He stood, staring at Grovyle and Marshtomp with a newfound desperation. He inhaled, a sharp whistling filling the tunnel—
"Double Kick!" May yelled.
Combusken charged, coming up behind Exploud and swinging his leg out in a fiery arc. Exploud raised an arm to block, flesh torn and scorched as it withstood the brunt of the blow. The whistling wavered—
"Grass Cutter!"
A new line of red opened across Exploud's back, marking a weeping cross. Exploud gasped, then growled and threw Combusken back, swiping behind him to drive off Grovyle. Eyes flashing, Exploud shut his mouth and sucked, air funneling into his horns in a massive rush—
"Bullet Seed!"
"Mud Shot!"
"Aim for his horns!" Astra and Brendan shouted together.
—and then Exploud choked, sputtering and coughing as liquid dirt and piercing bullets shot down into his airways. He fell to a knee, coughing out lumps of mud and filth—
"Keep kicking him!" May yelled. "Go for the jaw!"
"Keep him down!" Brendan ordered, "Cover him in as much mud as you can!"
—only for more sludge to encase his legs. Exploud struggled to lift himself up, the thick ooze resisting his efforts. Combusken rushed in and spun, delivering a brutal roundhouse kick to Exploud's jaw. Exploud's head snapped around, eyes bulging and mouth loosely falling open.
He fell to the ground, landing upon the mud beneath in a disgusting squelch. But even as Marshtomp poured more and more mud over Exploud's body, Exploud struggled to dig himself out. He pushed himself up by one arm, still expelling globs of muck from his lungs and weakly shovelling the sludge away.
"Exploud..." he said, voice weak and the once deep whistles that accompanied it now faint and off-key. He looked up, staring at them all with wild eyes. "Exploud!"
Asta had to admire the Exploud's sheer grit. Even with a broken nose, blackened skin and fur, a diced back, befouled airways, and battered jaw, Exploud still had the tenacity to lift itself back up and keep fighting. She watched his gaze slide past her own, and she followed it. Then, she sighed.
In the alcoves, a few brave Whismurs remained, the friendly one among them. Of course Exploud would be fighting so hard. He had come out to protect his family. It was a cause Astra sympathized with. Was she not out here for the very same? But neither of them could do that while the other continued to fight. And while Astra had been perfectly happy to leave Exploud be, the Aqua grunt's actions had locked away any chance of a peaceful resolution.
That said, any sympathy Astra held towards Exploud himself had vanished when he blew their ears out and punched May.
"Grovyle," Astra said, resting against the wall. "Drain him dry."
Grovyle leapt onto Exploud's back, shoving the large pokemon back down into the muck. A glowing verdant spike bloomed from Grovyle's palm and he struck down, driving it deep into Exploud's shoulder. The submerged pokemon cried out in pain as streams of green energy were siphoned away.
"Ex..." Exploud rasped, still trying to push himself up. One hand weakly grasped at the mud. "Ex...!"
May staggered along the tunnel wall, hand clutching at her side. Coming up to the mud-soaked pokemon, she stared, eyes glinting.
"Combusken," she said, quietly. "Axe kick."
Combusken stepped around the muck piling around the fallen giant. Standing before Exploud, Combusken looked down at the larger pokemon. Exploud stared back, eyes hazy.
"Ex—"
Combusken swung his leg up, and brought it down with a resounding crack. Exploud's skull smashed into the ground, rebounding off the stone beneath the mud. The force lifted Exploud's gaze just enough to look at Combusken. Then, at last, his eyes rolled back and he went limp, head thudding to the floor.
Victory.
Astra exhaled, sliding down the wall. It was over. She heard Brendan rush over to May, worrying over her injury—
"I know how to take a fucking punch, Brendan! I'm fine!"
"Yeah, maybe from people, but that was an Exploud! What if there's internal bleeding?"
"Ugh."
—but their argument was somewhat indistinct. A rather distracting ringing sound persisted in Astra's ears, a remnant of all the impossibly loud pokemon she'd run into today. It seemed to be fading a little, which was good. Going deaf would likely ruin her plans, and her music as well.
She looked back at the fallen Exploud, seeing Grovyle yank his hand back, the spike retreating into his palm. Exploud was lying face down in the mud. Would he be able to breathe like that? She could just make out a faint whistling from a few unfouled horns, but it'd be safer to make sure.
She signaled to Grovyle, forming the message slowly to avoid a mishap. Flip.
Grovyle blinked at Astra, then shrugged, nodding. Calling out to Combusken and Marshtomp, the three dug the mud off Exploud and turned him over, freeing his gargantuan maw from the muck. He was still breathing, so Astra called it a win.
With Exploud no longer in danger of suffocating and May seeming as lively as ever—
"Does it hurt to breathe?" Brenden pressed.
May rolled her eyes, petting Combusken as he returned to his master. "I'm fine! Just... let me sit down for a minute, fuck."
—Astra leaned back and sighed, taking a moment to just... breathe. Take stock. She felt Grovyle sit next to her, and she absentmindedly reached out to stroke his head while she thought. The Aqua grunt had escaped, which was bad, but the briefcase was still here, lying on the ground and slightly muddy where Brendan had tossed it. Mission accomplished, she supposed, though Astra didn't like that the grunt had gotten away. Who knew what he would do next?
Idly, Astra noted that her illusions had fallen off at some point. She carefully began to weave them back into place, her head still a bit tender from the earlier din. She doubted either May or Brendon had noticed, but it wouldn't do to get careless. Astra had just finished her height adjustment when she noticed a faint sniffling.
She shot upright, eyes wide—when had she closed them?—only to see that the side tunnels had once more filled with Whismur, all staring at their fallen protector. Their eyes shone with unshed tears, and one brave Whismur had stepped forward and was weakly pushing at Exploud. Astra recognized it as the same one they had met earlier.
"Whismur...?" Whismur said, voice wavering when Exploud failed to respond to her prodding. "Whis...?"
Astra looked from Whismur to the small crowd in the surrounding tunnels, all of whom were drowning in a miasma of despair. That wasn't good.
"Guys," Astra said, urgently. "We've got a problem!"
"Hm?" Brendan looked up, having been hovering over May for the last minute. "What's—oh no," he gasped, eyes wide.
"Oh hell," May hissed, peering around Combusken. "It's the fucking Whismur? Now?"
"They really don't seem to like that we knocked Exploud unconscious," Astra explained. She gave Brendan a pleading look. "Brendan, you calmed them down earlier. Can you do something?"
Brendan hesitated, looking at the horde of Whismur in the side tunnels. Steeling himself, he nodded, expression firming. "I can try."
Quietly approaching the lone Whismur, Brendan hunched down and called out. "Hey, buddy," he said, causing Whismur to whirl around in shock.
"Whis?" Whismur stepped back, staring up at Brendan. Astra could see her shaking, fear and hesitation warring in her mind. Brendan paused, then shuffled backwards a step. Whismur stopped shaking, confused, then looked between Exploud and Brendan. "Mur?"
"Worried about the big guy?" Brendan asked, glancing at the fallen Exploud. "He... should be fine. Maybe his nose will look a bit weird, but I don't think there will be any permanent damage. He'll be up and about after a bit of rest."
Whismur frowned. "Whismur mur!" she said, pointing at him accusingly. Astra briefly considered peeking at Whismur's surface thoughts to translate, if only for herself, but she was having a hard enough time saving energy to maintain her illusion and talk as it was.
Brendan winced. "Yeah, we did beat him up pretty hard. I'm sorry it went that way, but he wasn't giving us much choice. If I had just held the man from Team Aqua down better—"
"Whismur?" Whismur said, looking at Brendan intently. "Mur Whis-whis!"
"Um," Brendan said, looking faintly lost. "Right. It was that guy's fault, for doing that. But we—" Brendan continued, motioning to himself, Astra, May, and their pokemon, "—had to defend ourselves. I hope you can understand that. And, maybe help calm down your, uh, extended family?" Brendan eyed the Whismur in the tunnels, who looked a hair's breadth from panicking once again. "We do need to leave, and I think they'd like that too."
Whismur stared at him, then back at Exploud, deep in thought. Seeming to come to a decision, she looked at him and nodded. "Mur, mur-whis."
"You will?" Brendan said. He smiled. "Thank you!"
"Are we in the clear?" May asked, still sitting by the wall. "What's happening?"
"The Whismur is going to calm the rest down," Astra answered. "Though, I don't know how—eh?" Astra went silent as a soft whistle filled the air.
"Whis mur-mur whis, whismur-ur ur-ur-whis~" Whismur sang. It echoed in the tunnel, gentle reverberations overlapping in perfect harmony. Unlike Brendan's song, this one seemed designed for the echoing warrens, and much improved for it. WhIsmur paused, giving Brendan a look.
Brendan blinked. "You... want me to sing with you again?" he asked. Whismur nodded. Brendan hesitated again, then shook his head and smiled. "Alright then, I'll try my best. Though, I'm still not any good at singing, I'll have you know."
Whismur giggled, then lifted her ears and inhaled. Brendan cleared his throat and began to hum. Then, they sang. Humming and whistling mostly in sync, their tune was a work that reminded Astra of cool, windy nights and the utter calm that came with it. A very insistent calm, one backed by Whismur's innate power.
'A lullaby?' Astra wondered, listening to it reverberate through the tunnel. It grew on itself as it rebounded, the notes and melody becoming more complex as past chords synced with the current. It was fascinating, and trying to figure out how it worked was all that kept Astra from falling asleep on the spot.
Astra yawned, heavy eyelids threatening to flutter closed. Once all this was over, she was going to take a long nap. Looking over, Astra saw May doing much the same, her eyes watering a bit as she yawned into her hand. Their pokemon had already succumbed; Grovyle having sort of fallen over and sloppily curled around Astra's side while Combusken had sat next to May and dozed off. The surrounding Whismur didn't seem to be sleepy at all, but they had stopped shaking, and a few were even poking their heads out. Apparently judging that good enough, Whismur brought her and Brendan's little duet to a close.
"Whismur!" Whismur cheered, smiling at Brendan. She turned and waved at the other Whismur, who cautiously emerged from the side tunnels, watching the three trainers closely. They began to stream through the corridors, skirting past the trainers and beginning to dig Exploud out of the muck. Astra didn't know what they planned to do once they excavated Exploud's comparatively massive bulk, but at least they weren't terrified anymore.
"Huh." Brendan blinked, watching the procession dig the mud away one tiny clump at a time. "Well, that works. Thanks, Whismur."
"Whis!"
"Ugh," May cut in, grunting as she stood up and carefully not disturbing Combusken. Shaking her head, she returned Combusken to his pokeball, then picked up the briefcase from the floor. She rubbed at her eyes, blearily looking at Brendan and Astra. "Well, we got the stupid briefcase back. Can we leave now?"
"Sounds good to me," Astra agreed, recalling Grovyle. She stood up, checking to make sure everything looked right as she rose. Finding everything in order, she joined May and Brendan, massaging her aching head with a wince. "Ugh, my head hurts..."
"I'm just glad the ringing stopped. Any more of that and I might've gotten tinnitus," Brendan remarked, calling Marshtomp back as well. He grimaced. "I wouldn't be surprised if it'd happened before. Those miners must get some serious hazard pay."
"If this thing doesn't pay for something, " May added, motioning to the suitcase, "I'm going to... to... I dunno. Fill that guy's mattress with gravel," she muttered, yawning again.
Brendan gave her a strange look. "That's... inventive."
May scowled and flipped him off, but didn't comment further. Astra wondered which 'guy' she had meant. Presumably the Aqua grunt, but she wouldn't rule out the Devon employee either.
"Whismur!" Whismur said, drawing everyone's attention. She was waving at the group of Whismur digging out Exploud. They all turned and stared. Whismur kept waving. "Whismur whis! Mur mur!"
The Whismur group looked—shocked? Sad? Astra couldn't tell. But, as one, they looked over the three trainers and waved at them, a goodbye whispered en-masse. "Mur!"
That done, Whismur ambled past Brendan and down the tunnel, turning back to beckon them forward.
"...What was that?" May asked, looking at Brendan.
Brendan blinked. "I suspect our new friend wants to finish her escort mission."
"She's been pretty helpful so far," Astra said, shrugging. "I don't have a problem with it."
"If she starts screaming, so will I," May warned.
"It probably won't come to that, but please don't," Brendan said, shooting May a flat look. Turning to Whismur, he smiled. "Lead on, Whismur! We're counting on you."
Whismur chirped, and the three trainers followed the softly whistling pokemon through the tunnel. Aches and pains made themselves known with each step, and the exhaustion was felt with every slow blink, but the promise of escape kept them marching onward. Soon enough, light blossomed in the distance and, finally, they emerged into sunlight.
Astra squinted at the sun, shading her eyes. It was still somewhat close to where it had been, marking the beginnings of mid-afternoon. Had it only been, what, twenty minutes? Half an hour? It felt longer. Astra scanned the area and sighed. No signs of the thief. She hadn't really expected him to stick around, but it would have been nice to tie up a loose end.
A cheerful squawk drew her attention. Turning to look, Astra yelped as a Wingull swooped over her head. It circled above them with joyful cries of "Wingull!" Astra stared at it for a second before she remembered.
"Peeko?" she asked.
"Wingull!" the bird cried out.
"She made it out alright," Brendan said, sighing in relief. "That's good."
"If she doesn't stop circling my head like she's about to lose some weight, she won't be for much longer," May grumbled, eyeing Peeko warily.
"Oh, there you are!" a voice called out. "Are you three alright?"
Astra turned, spotting Mr. Briney walking up to them. His brow was furrowed, eyes glancing over them and noting every scrape and bruise. After a moment he let out a relieved sigh. Putting two fingers in his mouth, he let loose a sharp whistle. Peeko wheeled around and descended, alighting on the old sailor's shoulder. He smiled, stroking the bird's head.
"Thank you so much for rescuing my darling Peeko. I dare say she owes her life to you three," he said, looking at the three trainers in turn. "I was worried when you didn't follow her out, and then all that racket started... That birdnapper left before you did, fled straight into the forest before anyone knew what was happening! I thought that something awful had happened."
"The thief caused some trouble with the Whismur, and escaped in the confusion," Brendan explained. "There was a fight with their patriarch and... well, we're pretty battered, to be honest."
"Oh dear. Well, I'm glad to see that you're all in one piece, at least." Mr. Briney grimaced. "I'd hate for a couple of kids to get injured on my behalf. That said, I'm not one to let a debt go unpaid. If you ever need anything, be sure to let me know!"
May squinted. "What would I ever need from some old guy? A bingo club ticket?"
Brendan rounded on May, but before he could say a word, Mr. Briney began to laugh.
"Do ho ho ho!" Mr. Briney smiled, a mischievous glint in his eye. "Ah, such spunk from youngsters these days. I will admit, I can't do much these days," he admitted, tugging on his beard thoughtfully, "But if I do say so, I am quite the accomplished sailor. By the looks of you three, I wouldn't be amiss to think that you're going around collecting gym badges for the pokemon championship, are you?"
"We are," Astra confirmed. "We just fought Roxanne the other day, actually."
"You did?" Brendan said, blinking. He groaned, facepalming. "The one day I don't visit the gym. Of course. Did you win?"
"Kicked her ass," May confirmed, smirking. She turned back to Mr. Briney. "Yeah, we're going through the gyms. What of it?"
"Well, there just so happens to be a gym down south on Dewford Island," Mr. Briney said, grinning. "I daresay you'll be hard pressed to find yourself a way there without buying a boat ticket. You could swim there yourself, of course, but those waters are awfully treacherous, especially near Winter's Eye."
"Oh!" Astra said as the pieces fell into place. "You'd be willing to take us to Dewford Island?"
"That I could, young miss," Mr. Briney confirmed. "That is, if you're amicable to the idea. Heck, I'll ferry you to Slateport afterward too. Anytime you want! For my Peeko, I'd say that's a fair deal."
"Gull, gull!" Peeko agreed, nodding wisely.
"Oh man, I could go sailing with Mr. Briney!" Brendan exclaimed with starry eyes. "It'd be an honor, sir!"
Mr. Briney chuckled. "No need to call me sir, Briney does me just as well. If you insist on being formal, well an old sea dog like me, I suppose Captain would do eh? Oh!" He blushed, suddenly looking contrite. "I've been so caught up in all the excitement that I've forgotten to ask your names! Care to trouble an old sailor with them?"
"My name's Astra!" Astra said, giving Briney a large smile, which he returned. He reminded Astra of her Grandpa, a bit. He was nice. "Thank you for the offer!"
"I suppose you didn't hear me earlier, but you can call me Brendan. Brendan Birch." Brendan said, offering his hand. Briney shook it, giving Brendan a firm nod.
May considered Briney for a moment, then shrugged. "Name's May. I suppose a free ride wouldn't be too bad. Sure, why not."
"Ah, that's good to hear!" Briney said. He bowed, with Peeko fluttering to stay balanced on his shoulder. "Once again, Astra, Brendan, May, thank you all. Should you want to take me up on my offer, you can find my house just south of the Petalburg Woods, on the beach. It's the one with the pier."
"Oh!" Astra said, surprised. "I think we saw that before, didn't we May?"
"Huh. Yeah, I remember that. That's your house?" May asked, receiving a nod in return. "Alright, got it. We'll see you there, I guess."
"Very good! I'll see you then. Farewell." Mr. Briney smiled one last time and turned to leave, but paused. "Oh, and Brendan? That little one by your feet seems to want your attention." He waved, then walked off, Peeko taking off and circling overhead with a happy caw.
"Eh?" Brendan blinked, then looked down. Whismur peered out from behind his leg, staring intently at the shrinking Mr. Briney.
Noticing his stare, Whismur looked up and smiled. "Whis!"
"Oh, hey Whismur," Brendan said, smiling. He knelt down, his tone a bit more somber. "I suppose this is it, then. Thanks for helping us out back there, it saved us a lot of trouble."
"Yeah!" Astra agreed. "If it weren't for you, we'd have been in real big trouble with all the other Whismur. You've been a big help!"
May yawned. Everyone waited a moment. May rolled her eyes. "Mhm. Sure. Thanks," she muttered, dryly.
Brendan shook his head. "Heh. Well, I'm still not much of a vocalist, but singing was kind of fun. Take care of yourself—huh?"
Brendan paused as Whismur puffed up and angrily waved her arms about. "Whismur whis!" she said, glaring at him.
"You're not saying goodbye?" Brendan asked confusedly. "Er, Whismur, I know you liked singing with me, but we do have to leave—wait." Brendan paused, looking even more confused. "Do you... want to come with me?"
"How did he get all that out of 'Whismur mur' and a bunch of flailing?" May muttered to Astra, who shrugged. This was unexpected, though. Why would Whismur want to be captured? Didn't she know that she'd be fighting? Whismur, as a species, seemed particularly disinclined to seek power for power's sake. So, what reason could there be?
Whismur nodded, leaving Brendan looking bewildered. "Why?" he asked, echoing Astra's musings. "It can't just be because you liked singing with me. I mean, you do know what you're asking for, right? A trainer's pokemon needs to be able to fight. If you want to come with me, you'd have to learn how to battle."
Rather than deterring her, this appeared to reaffirm Whismur's resolve. "Whis!" she said, looking Brendan in the eye. She pointed back to the cave and started waving her arms around a lot. "Whismur whis whis! Mur mur whis! Whis!" she said, miming a punch and a kick, the latter of which made her fall over. She scrambled back up and pointed at Brendan. "Whismur!" she finished, nodding in finality.
SIlence.
"Did... anyone get that?" May asked, looking from Brendan to Astra. Astra shrugged, feeling as lost as May looked.
"I think I have a theory," Brendan said, examining Whismur carefully. "Because we beat Exploud, Whismur has lost confidence in Exploud's ability to defend the cave." Whismur started nodding, encouraging Brendan to continue. "So, I think Whismur wants me to train her, because we're stronger than Exploud, so she can become an even better guardian for the cave. More or less?"
"Whismur!" Whismur chimed, nodding rapidly.
Astra stared. Well, she could understand the motivation far too well, but wasn't there a huge problem with that plan!? "How would she defend the cave if she's stuck with you?" she asked Brendan, confused.
"Well, when the time comes, I could just release her," Brendan said, thoughtfully. "It's not like I have to keep her forever."
"Oh," Astra said. She hadn't known that trainers could just... let pokemon go. The concept hadn't even occurred to her. But now it seemed obvious. If Astra had caught something that was so totally hostile or uncooperative as to be a danger to herself, she wouldn't want to keep it around either. She supposed that would apply to more mundane reasons as well, such as a permanent injury or... a deal, as the current situation was going.
She thought about it for a second, then shook her head. Leaving home to protect it—a familiar story. So similar. Yet... so different. "I hope you know what you're getting into," Astra told Whismur. Joining up with the first human she met, or one that could beat her? Personally participating in all these fights? Left under the whims of whatever random person had captured her? Such a plan never would have worked in Astra's favor. She could only wish the smaller pokemon luck.
"I can't promise that you'll find exactly what you're looking for, but I'll do my best to try. But it will be hard," Brendan said, bringing out an empty pokeball. "Are you sure about this?"
"Whis!" Whismur declared, puffing up to her full height. Which wasn't much, but Astra couldn't deny the determination in the Whismur's eyes. That was impressive, considering Whismur's eyes were basically a few slits where proper eyes would be.
Brendan looked at Whismur for another moment, then nodded. He grinned. "Alright then. Hello, Whismur, I'm Brendan Birch. We'll be partners from here on out. Glad to have you."
Brendan tossed the pokeball. Whismur chirped, jumping to catch it. The ball bonked her on the head and Whismur vanished in a swirl of red light. The ball chimed thrice and fell still with a soft click.
"Neat. Now in a month we'll have a personal ear-breaker," May grumbled as Brendan stashed it away. "Can we go back to Rustboro now? Getting out of bed this morning was a mistake." May rubbed at her side for a moment, wincing.
Astra gave her a worried look. "You okay?"
"I'm fine," May said, waving Astra off and confidently striding towards the road. "Just gotta— erk!" She halted, holding her side with grit teeth. "...gotta walk it off," she finished, muttering.
Astra and Brendan shared a look. "Well," Brendan said, watching May carefully. "I should probably tell the miners what went down, but yeah. Let's go back to Rustboro."
...
"What do you mean you 'knocked out the Exploud'!? It'll take weeks before we can go back in there without it trying to assault us!"
Incidentally, the miners weren't happy.
A/N
This took a while. Hope it was worth the wait.
No one decent place to link it, so have an image made by Dex here in the AN!
Thank you for reading my story. Please tell me what you think!
That Combusken can probably use a nice talk about it being wrong to burn people who can't heal back up from it with a potion and a burn heal, just in case. Even if May orders otherwise. Oh, and same goes for kicking now.
That aqua grunt doesn't know when to quit. The dumbass might have earned himself a recurrent villain spot. Way to make himself suffer more.
Also, that fight was totally unfair. Exploud barely got to use any turns, I thought that bullcrap was done with gen 1! Mudslap and those other attacks don't cause flinching! I call hax! Let Exploud have a rematch.
Unfortunate as it it, this is looking like more confirmation that Astra's hefty dose of trauma about her own abilities from that whole "Bruise The Fabric Of Reality" incident is going to be manifesting in a way that'll drastically affect how she battles. Sure, she already had plenty of reason to hide them and keep her identity secret, but recently it seems like she's not even letting herself consider using them. There were a whole bunch of places where I was convinced "Ah, so at this point she's going to have to mentally pull that grunt away and worry about the questions later- oh", or "So is she going to teleport over there and help out directly? At this point I think she's the only one who can still move fast enough to save- oh", but obviously those never happened against another pokemon.
I think it may also be exaggerated by how extensively she's slotted herself into the role of a Trainer: Trainers don't have powers, they have to use their pokemon's powers. Therefore, her first response can never be her own powers. The loophole to this, as we saw with the telepathic spike, is that she mostly only falls into this mindset during an actual battle. Everywhere else, all she has to overcome is the... oh yeah, the massive trauma that's there too.
...It's going to be a long time before Astra starts working on more subtle tricks beyond the bare necessities, huh?
This just makes me think she's gonna out herself during an extreme situation. And since we're going with extreme...
Astra's arm hurt in May's grip.
Her legs ached but she kept pumping them.
She dared only look forward towards the light at the end of the tunnel-
-Not back towards the fiery burning light that blazed behind them.
'JUMP!' she -rashly- breathlessly thought at May when she felt her feet burn.
May did.
Stupidly, hopelessly, clearly unable to clear the 10 yards between them and cold freedom.
Astra hoped she wouldn't notice the telekinetic aid, as the girls practically flew out of the cave mouth just ahead of a river of surging lava.
Only to take a nosedive down a cliff.
Followed by whole chunks of melting rock the size of cars.
"OHSHITFUCKSHITDAMNFUCK BLAZIKEN SKY UPPERCUT!" red light shined into said red furred pokemon, who with nary a doubt kicked off the cliff side to punch a ton of rock into smithereens, only to promptly use the momentum gained from the impact to catch down to the falling girls, spin, grab them, and throw them up and away from the lava avalanche, getting them out of dodge while mitigating their downward momentum at the same time!
Only for a humongous shadow to fall over the fighting pokemon.
"RETURN!" the falling -spinning- May somehow did a 720° no scope recall beam to save her starter just before he got crushed by a rain of pebbles, lava, and dust.
Then everything EXPLODED.
Astra was vaguely aware of May's intermittent, continuous cursing as she felt the very cliff kicked them and hammered them as they still fell how high was that mountain oh there's the ground-
"Sceptile! Slaking! CATCH!"
Both pokemon materialized just in time underneath each girl, seizing hold of them as gently as possible as they -painfully- completed their fall, grunting and wheezing as they were safely left down on safe, sloped ground...
"What's that sound?"
The four looked uphill as a few dozen geodudes, graveller, golems and magcargos and a lone groudon, clearly out of control, rolled down the slope at what looked to the exhausted girls to be approximately mach 1 speed towards them.
"OH SHIT-
"-oh fuck."
The grass and normal pokemon were promptly returned as the girls did the only sane thing they could:
They jumped down another cliff.
For a moment, time seemed to stop as they stared at each other, wide eyed, floating through the air in slow motion, clearly communicating to each other through their long bred familiarity, that the situation they found themselves in was. Absolute. Bullshit.
Time resumed as something the weight of a truck struck Astra's feet.
'MAY!' she cried.
May acted fast.
Bending mid-air, one hand latched onto her companion's arm, the other reached back at the solid ground they had just ejected themselves from, slowing down their flight by scraping at the dirt and digging furrow just under the multi-tons of rock pokemon avalanching themselves over her tiny, little, frail fingers.
Until she lost her grip.
"Shit!"
The girls fell again into uncertain doom-
"OW- Oof!"
Except it was a short fall this time.
"... Please get off me," begged Astra.
May crawled off her friend and slumped to lie down on the ground.
"What the..." she gasped, rolling to face towards the sky, "fuuuuuu... UCK?!"
The sky blotted out as a fucking Golem fell from above and towards the exhausted girls and was covered by a blue glow and...floated?
May wheezed for air as her eyes, scrunched up in confusion, lowered until they found her pokemon journey long time companion holding her arms up towards the third stage falling-object hazard who, following her friend's arm movements, gently floated down and to the side, until it came to rest on safe ground, somewhere where it wouldn't crush them to a pulp.
The Golem, clearly feeling it had had enough excitement for the day, promptly curled itself into a ball and fell asleep.
May wholeheartedly agreed.
On second thought, she chucked a pokeball at it, which easily sucked up the Golem and captured it. She deserved something good out of all that mess.
Without even waiting for the pokeball to give its final 'ding!', she sat up and turned to Astra.
"You're a psychic."
"... Uh-hm..." Astra glanced at May without half the panic she'd thought she'd feel whenever this day might've come. Clearly the exhaustion talking.
"You know what, fuck it," May lied back down, both girls resting on the safe and sound -and hard- ground, looking up at the sky -before looking away with scrunched up eyes, fuck, the sun was harsh, "you've fooled me all this time."
"May..."
"I believe it, because, why not."
"So you're..." the newly revealed psychic twiddled her thumbs. "You're..."
"I'm OK with it, yeah."
"Oh."
"We kinda saved each other's ass multiple times by now. Daily, sometimes."
After a long pause, Astra sighed.
"You don't know how happy it makes me to hear that," she smiled as she took off her hat and threw it away, letting herself relax, finally giving up the illusion.
"WAIT WHAT THE FUCK YOU'RE A POKEMON?!"
Astra flinched the crap out into a sitting position, staring with eyes wide as platters at May, who did likewise.
"Y-y-you- but you said- fine with-"
"I SAID YOU'RE A PSYCHIC!" May bellowed over Astra's fully panicked muttering, "NOT A PSYCHIC POKEMON!"
As if giving out on the last of her energy, May deflated, though still staring at her pokemon friend as if she couldn't believe it.
"... There are human psychics?" asked Astra in a tiny voice.
Thinking quickly, Astra made circling motions with her hands.
"NooooOOOoooOoo MaaaAAAaaaa, I'm noooOoooooOOOoo a psyyYYYchiiiIIiiic..."
"What are you doing."
"You're forgeeeeEEEEEeeeeetting this ever haaaaAAAAaaaappened..."
"You can't do that."
"Yes I CAAAAaaaaaaan... wooooOOOoooo," she added for good measure.
"That's not- you're saying you're not a psychic so that doesn't," May pulls out her pokedex and aims it at Astra, "should have done this from the beginning," she mutters. "It says here that you can't even use amnesia on yourself, much less on me."
Astra puts her hat back on.
"Aaaaaaall forgotten," she tops making silly waving motions, pulls out a Max Potion, sprays herself with it-
"That is so fucking cheap," complains the still battered May.
-lifts up May with telekinesis and, after making sure all her pokeballs are in order, walks off, going back to the closest city.
"You're not even pretending you're not a psychic," informs May.
"But now I know there's psychic humans."
"But, but, but, bleh."
"This never ever happened."
"Yes, it did."
"Never."
"Y-"
"Never."
Astra teleports them away.
And never acknowledged the day had ever happened.
Ever.
'... Someone pay attention to me,' complained Groudon.
That night was spent entirely upon deep philosophical talks interspersed with unintentional naps. By the time the sun rose, the two had reconciled and were closer than ever. Despite being forced to reveal her secret to someone, now that there was a willing, knowledgeable, understanding supporter traveling with her, Astra's journey was in a better position than ever.
Except... after a lazy morning spent sleeping in, as May watched her incredibly sore friend teleport to the couch instead of walking from the bed... a horrible thought clicked together and shocked her out of her drowsing state.
Her fists clenched, and a star of righteous indignation began to-No. No. Calm, peace, tranquility, all that jazz. Astra was her friend, and cared for her, and had not yet finished telling her all that she needed to know. Surely, there was a reasonable explanation for this?
" 'ey. Astra. Can you take people with you when you do that?"
"Yeah, 's easy," the Kirlia mumbled into her mind despite being facedown in a cushion.
Her fists clenched, and a star of righteous indignation ignited in her chest.
In a great space beyond space, a great mass of Unown danced and sang among swirls of cosmic light. Their power ebbed and flowed between them, and all were partaking in the great work of their masters. Countless hands shaped and molded the rules and events of reality, ensuring all things were as they should be.
All was calm.
Abruptly, a hole in space opened, a large vessel one would identify as a flying pirate ship hurtling through at great speed. Hot on its trail, a large, skeletal dragon ridden by a single, rotting hand clutching a book chased after it in single minded determination.
Neither of these were particularly important, though the Unown, still singing the great symphony, looked at the two intruders with alarm and curiosity. What was important was the man that vaguely resembled a christmas tree screaming at the dragon from the rear of the ship.
"Fuck off, hand!" the man screamed, waving around a tentacle that had taken the place of his arm. "You had your chance when you were still on my wrist! We're through!"
The dragon roared soundlessly. The rotted hand raised itself up and twisted into a fist with the middle finger raised.
The wizard—for that was what the man was—choked and sputtered. "Alright then," He hollered, magic gathering to the tips of his limbs. "Fuck you too! STEAM CANNON!"
Power coalesced, and a superhot jet of steam roared through the void. The dragon swerved around the jet and chased the ship through another hole in space, which closed behind them without a trace.
The jet, flying through the void, smashed into a small group of Unown, scattering them and knocking a few unconscious.
And their song, one that governed certain rules of space-time...
Skipped a beat.
(Somewhere, a pair of beings looked up for their nap. They paused, yawned, then went back to sleep. It could wait a few more hours.)
The sun was shining, flowers were blooming, and Astra was 100% completely lost. She wandered through the dense, untamed forest, anxious and confused.
She wasn't quite sure how it had happened; she had resolved to go out into the woods surrounding Rustboro to practice teleportation and train Slakoth up some. Then she had gone around a tree and the forest had suddenly changed without warning. The trees were different, the clouds in the sky had completely altered their form, even the air smelled different.
Where was she? She couldn't see Rustboro; a short climb to the top of a large tree showed only more forest and looming rock walls in the distance with nary a skyscraper to be seen. Panic had briefly taken hold of her—How would she get back? What if she couldn't? What would happen to her village? To May?— before she had resolutely taken a few calming breaths, steadying herself.
If she was lost, then she merely had to find a way out. Human cities were all over the place; surely she would find one if she went in a straight line for long enough. Even better if she could find a river. Then she could work on getting back to Rustboro.
It was unfortunate that her pokedex didn't seem to be of any help. Whenever she tried to access the map, all she received was an error going off about some sort of 'invalid codec'. What was a codec? The maps were largely trash, but at least they had shown the general area. Astra felt a bit of regret for ragging on the thing so often, but only a little.
Trash was still trash, after all.
She sighed, re-adjusting her robe after tromping through another bush. Had she been here already? That set of flowers looked familiar, but she couldn't say for certain. She hadn't sensed any humans in the few hours she had been walking either, and had mostly given up on expecting anything other than the local wildlife. She rubbed her stomach, feeling the vibrations as it growled at her unhappily. It seemed that lunch time was upon her.
Reaching for her pack, Astra paused. She... didn't really know how long she would be out here for. Or what there was to eat, out here. If she was back home she'd be able to make do no problem, but she hadn't seen so much as a single berry since she had gotten here, and she'd yet to spot any rivers to fish from.
There were always the strange new birds and critters which roamed around, but Astra didn't really know how to prepare creatures that weren't Magikarp. There had never been a need; the river was plentiful and the gardens even more-so. Oh, she was sure she'd have learned eventually, likely in the next year or once she had become a Kirlia, but eventually didn't exactly help her now. Certainly she could make a valiant attempt at it, but she'd rather try something familiar first.
The food in her bag would likely be hard to replenish then; she'd have to conserve it. That meant finding a river or an actual berry source. Course set, Astra... continued walking through the woods aimlessly. But this time, she was searching for berries.
It was only a few moments later that Astra noticed something odd. A large X had been gouged into the side of a tree. Astra stared at it, then looked around. Nothing else seemed amiss. Nothing in the tree branches. There was just an X, in the tree. For no reason.
Lacking anything else to investigate, Astra shrugged and moved on. A few moments later she ran into another one. Astra squinted at the ruined bark, looking between the two marked trees. What were these markings for? Still lacking much to do, she left it behind, only to come across yet another one a few seconds later.
Astra paused, looking back at the line of marked trees. Were these a guide? Was someone else lost in here and marking their way? But she still didn't sense any humans. Who had...? Well, it didn't matter. Clearly something intelligent had done this, and Astra was determined to find out what.
Following the general line, Astra waded through another dozen bushes and empty meadows. The trees seemed to be converging and splitting more and more the further she went, seeming to spread out in a branching manner. Fitting, if not frustrating when she took a wrong turn and found a dead end. Retracing her steps, Astra soldiered on.
Something wonderful filled the air. Astra stopped, wide eyed. What was that smell? It smelled sweet, sweeter than anything she had ever smelt before, save perhaps the ice cream. Had she finally found a berry bush, and a new, exotic one at that!? Drooling a little, Astra followed the fantastic scent. She drifted off the marked path, brushing past another dense patch of foliage until another small clearing presented itself.
The scent seemed to be the strongest here. Astra entered the clearing, looking around, then she blinked, confused. None of the bushes seemed to have berries on them. She thought about it for a second, then shook her head. Well, obviously. If they smelled this good, wild pokemon would have picked off all the easy ones long ago. There must be one hiding in the center of one of the bushes.
Astra sniffed again, then frowned. Was the smell fading? She would have to hurry, then. Circling the clearing, Astra reached into her bag and pulled out an empty jar. Hopefully there were more than one; she could not wait to make a new soup out of it. Reaching the strongest concentration of smell, Astra eagerly pulled the bushes foliage aside with a wave of her hand.
Two giant red eyes, small as pinpricks, stared at her from inside the bush. Astra stared at the petite yellow form hidden inside the foliage. It was terrifying.
The Mawile screamed, a gigantic black maw rising up behind her and snapping down at Astra.
Astra screamed right back and, on pure instinct, reached out—
Space is not—
...
Wait, what?
How did...
???
Astra gasped, appearing across the clearing in mid-air and falling to her butt as a loud clack rang out from the giant maw. Scrambling to her feet, she stared at the new pokemon, heart racing. Mawile stared straight back, wobbling to its feet and staring at Astra in shock. The great black horn/mouth/thing hovered in front of her, clacking together and licking its lips(?).
The smell was gone now. Was it a trap? Had this thing just tried to eat her? Just like the Poochyena from back then. She grit her teeth and reached for Treecko's pokeball.
"Alright, nobody tries to eat me!" Astra growled, enlarging the ball. "Let's see how you like getting eaten!"
The Mawile's eyes widened even further as Astra reared back. "Maw, maw, wile, mawile!" she screamed, backing up.
Wait, wait, stop, I didn't mean to!
Astra halted, shocked. What... was that? She had heard 'Mawile', but... had they been speaking in human, too?
"Wile wile maw, mawile mawile wile maw!" Mawile continued to ramble, backing up into the shrubbery.
It was an accident, please don't capture me!
Astra lowered her arm, gaping at the Mawile. "You can talk!?"
Mawile paused, staring at Astra. Both its mouths dropped open.
"Mawile!?"
You can understand me!?
"What the fuck!?" Two voices cried out in chorus.
Apparently I wrote this in three hours at 4 AM. I do not recall the majority of this.
Way to make himself suffer more.
