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Hyphen (Pokemon Emerald)

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AU Omake (Ch. 26) - For the Journey of 1000 Miles, Wear These for every Single Step
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    • Dermonster said:



    My man @Dexexe1234 came through once again! My girl has grown so much hasn't she?

    (Check out his quest! Note: not for the squeamish.)
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...

    (crossposted from Space Battles)

    AU Omake - For the Journey of 1000 Miles, Wear These for every Single Step

    Jo was having a wonderful day working at Schuster's Shoe Store (Rustboro branch); They'd already matched five people with quality cobblework for a variety of occasions. Now, as they were finishing up their lunch, they were spending the rest of their break relaxing so as to be ready for the rest of the workshift.

    It didn't take all too much longer for their friend Martyn to finish helping that young verdette trainer they saw them with as they were heading off to break, and it was easy for them to see the stress their friend was under. Was that trainer really that worrisome?

    "Hey Martyn!" they greeted. "Everything going okay? That customer wasn't too terrible, I hope?"

    "Not really, Jo." they replied, getting their lunch out to eat (a rather scrumptious looking sandwich with a bottle of Oran juice to wash it down). " If anything, they were pretty decent, if a little naïve. you'd think this was the first time she'd ever set foot in a shoe store."

    "Really? how do you mean?"

    "Well, it's either their family's been buying their shoes for them, or she's been going barefoot most her life. You could practically see that they didn't even recognize a Branrock Device. Sure most people don't know what it's called, but they've had to have seen one when getting measured for their shoe size."

    "That is odd. Is there any reason you could think of why?"

    "I mean, from what her friends tell it, she's from a secluded forest village, so maybe this isn't the type of experience she's used to when getting new shoes."

    "That makes sense. How was her first sizing anyway? The way you speak about it, she'd probably have been nervous about it all."

    "That's just it; I'd sat her down to get her measured, and the results would've been unbelievable had I not done them myself. I still don't think I quite believe them, to be honest."

    "Unbelievable? What, did she have bigger feet than you expected?"

    "Quite the opposite, really. it took a lot more composure not to offend her by accident, but I figured it'd be a little embarrassing to point out her feet are a better fit for the shoes in the toddler aisle aloud, you know?"

    "Toddler shoes? Surely you're having a jest?"

    "No, really! What's more is that, after telling her to wait while I went to get her some to try on, she didn't even question it when I came back with a pair. She was even awestruck with how well they fit! Told me they were amazing, too."

    "How'd her friends react?"

    "I don't know, they wandered around the store doing their own shopping while I was helping their friend out. I just hope this doesn't come back to bite me later on."

    "I hear you. Anyway, how's your whismur doing? I haven't seen little Gracie in a while."

    "She's doing well. Why just last week. . ."
     
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    Astra fires the Doom Orb (Ch 21)
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    • My brother has given me an early christmas present via one of his friends. (@AceAximeck on Twitter.)

    I was not directly involved in the creation and details of the production so some details are not what I personally envisioned (like how it's the orb itself firing a beam instead of the energy crackling through Astra into a Psychic Sphere in her other hand.) but I am enjoying this immensly.

    Thank you for everything, everybody!

     
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    A phone call. (Ch 21.5)
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    • If you may recall the AN of 28, there was a '1k section excised with a scalpel'.

    As a christmas present, I will give you this section more or less unedited from when it got ripped out. It was scattered across the whole of it, piecemeal-like, so the formatting is...off. I've left in the line breaks for zero reason, and it's all in italics because it was meant to be a flashback and changing it would be troublesome.

    Enjoy the rest of December, and here's to another year! Hopefully better than the last.


    "Only telepathy?" a young boy's voice said across the receiver. Roxanne recognized it as Tate, one of the Psychic Gym's twin leaders.

    "Are you sure?" a girl's voice continued, equally as young. Liza, the other half of the twin Psychic duo.

    Both were not yet in their teens. Both had the burden of commanding the Psychic gym of Mossdeep. It was, in Roxanne's opinion, a very unusual situation. Still, they were the best source of info for the current strangeness: a new trainer named Astra who, allegedly, only communicated with psychic power.

    "It's my best hypothesis," Roxanne confirmed, tapping a finger on the table in her Gym's A/V room. "I couldn't hear Astra's voice in the recordings, and there weren't any equipment errors. Her excuse of commanding her pokemon through music didn't hold up under examination either."

    "Weeeiiird," the twins chorused.

    "I've not heard the name," Liza mused. "I hope she comes by; I love meeting new sisters!"

    "Ooh, maybe she'll play us a song too!" Tate exclaimed. "That'll be fun!"

    "Is only talking in telepathy unusual?" Roxanne asked, gently steering the conversation back on track. "I'm not well versed in matters of this nature; should I be worried?"

    There was silence on the other line.

    "Maybe."


    "I've never heard of someone only using telepathy to speak," Liza explained.

    "Talking that way isn't trivial!" Tate complained. "You gotta form a link, make sure only what you wanna say gets said—"

    "It takes practice," Liza cut in. "We can talk to each other pretty easily, but other people take more work. I don't think we've ever spoken that way without breaks."

    "This 'Astra' must be pretty strong," Tate said. "Maybe stronger than us?"

    "No way!" Liza denied immediately. "We're the strongest in Hoenn!"

    "Hah, you're right; no one can beat our power!" Tate cheered.

    "Childr—" Roxanne admonished on reflex, then cut herself off, embarrassed. "Ahem," she restarted, carefully reminding herself that this was not a classroom and these were not unruly students. "Back to the topic at hand; is it something to be concerned about?"

    "Dunno," Tate said. "Telepathy isn't a worry on it's own; the reasons why might be. I could guess, but, well, it's not like we've met this 'Astra'."

    "Yet," Liza added. Roxanne could almost picture the anticipatory grin on her face.

    "Just means she's good at telepathy and won't talk normally. Maybe she can't."

    "Oh!" Liza said. Roxanne heard a finger snap. "Like that girl Wattson was helping?"

    "Oh yeah!" Tate exclaimed. "She's got that weird box in her throat, doesn't she? Maybe it's like that."

    "I see..." Roxanne said. The lack of clear answer was frustrating, but if there was nothing immediate to worry over then she could live with it. "Well, I'll trust your judgement on that. It's just very odd, is all. I've never had a psychic trainer in my gym who didn't show off with a trick or two before their fight. This is the first time I've only known after the fact." She sighed, leaning back in her chair. "It occurs to me that I may have had more gifted individuals pass through my gym than I realized. Is that a normal occurrence? Hiding being psychic, I mean."

    Silence returned with an air of incredulity. Roxanne shifted in her chair uneasily as the seconds ticked by.

    "...are you sure you should be teaching at that school you have over there?" Liza asked, baffled.

    "Cause that was the dumbest question I ever heard get asked," Tate finished, equally confused.


    "There's a lotta reasons a Psychic wouldn't wanna let people know about it," Liza explained.

    "Biggest one is because people get really stupid about it sometimes," Tate added. "Our trainers get hassled by tourists a lot. "

    "Bend this spoon! Lift that rock! Make me fly!" Liza scoffed. "Like lifting a person is     easy! We're not a circus; if they want to see psychic tricks they should just catch a pokemon!"

    "Worst one is 'Hey, what number am I thinking of?'" Tate muttered. "Like reading someone's mind is something you can just     do."

    "People ask you to read their minds!?" Roxanne asked, shocked.

    "We don't, obviously," Liza snorted. "Doesn't stop some visitors from accusing us of it, though. We get a few idiots who just     hate us every now and then."

    "They think just because we     can, that we will." Tate said. "I wonder if they accuse cooks of spitting in their food too."

    Liza laughed. "If I had to feed them? They'd be right."


    "How horrible," Roxane said, quietly. She'd read about this sort of thing, of course, but to hear it first hand put it into stark relief. "Is it like that all the time? I can't imagine..."

    "Yeah," Tate agreed. "Some of us just don't want to deal with it."

    "But they still want to be true to themselves," Liza said. "so they practice at home or with others of our kin."

    "We wouldn't be surprised if this Astra was among them."

    "Telepathy and mind reading are conflated a lot. They aren't the same at all, but..."

    "If it was known she was only using telepathy, a few nasty reactions wouldn't be unexpected."


    "And if that was the case?" Roxanne asked. She doesn't know what troubles the twins had faced—couldn't know, not like they had. But she would never turn away a chance to understand and help those who did. "Is there some way to help those who've...been discouraged?"

    A third silence, but kinder. More thoughtful.

    "You'd have to be discreet about it..." Tate started.

    "But we can point you in the right direction!" Liza finished, her and Tate's matching grins nearly audible over the receiver. "All right, here's what to do..."

    Roxanne listened. Then she grabbed a slip of paper and started to write.

    "Thank you," she said, after she was done. "If I see anything of the sort, I'll put this advice to good use.     If I even notice." Roxanne sighed, suddenly feeling very tired. "How many times have I missed something like this, I wonder...?"

    "It's easy to miss things when you don't know how to look for them," Tate consoled.

    "Just don't miss any more, alright?" Liza said. "We made this gym to stop—what the     fuck is that!?"

    "Liza!" Roxanne exclaimed, utterly shocked at her young colleague's foul exclamation. Shock that was quickly swept aside by a horrible chill running down her spine. Something was wrong. She stood up, frantically looking around the room for what her instincts screamed was imminent danger. The phone, forgotten on the table, spouted yet more curses before abruptly falling silent.

    Then the ground quaked and Roxanne turned her attention to a nearby window just in time to see the fading remnants of a horrible obsidian pillar splitting the sky.

    The sirens went off.

    It was going to be a long night.


    I'd also like to give a warm welcome to everyone who found my story from the Users choice awards. I hope you enjoy your stay! And maybe tell folks how you liked it, eh?
     
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    • Itsy bitsy. (Alt Ch. 25 ft. Arceus Legends)
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    • "Oh, that's easy." Brendan said, setting his magazine down. "Dad told you how basic pokeballs work, right?"

    "Something about stasis, I think?" Astra hazarded. She shook her head. "I still don't get how they do what they do, though."

    And wasn't that the question? The one that set this whole adventure off way back on Route 104. That green-haired child—Wally? May had been there too—had thrown a pokeball at her, and she had avoided capture by the most narrow of margins. She had found it and discovered how it could change size and shape, and then she had wanted to know how.

    At long last, was that initial mystery about to be answered? Astra leaned forward, focusing intently on Brendan's words.

    "Neither do I, really," he confided, dashing Astra's hopes. "At least, the modern ones. The first pokeballs were made from apricorns, which trigger a sort of instinctual allergic reation that makes pokemon shrink down—"

    "Wait, I'm sorry, what's an apricorn?" Astra asked confused.

    "Oh, they're a sort of fist-sized fruit." Brendan explained. "They're not native to Hoenn so you won't find any of them here."

    Astra just stared at him, speechless. Fruit. Pokeballs were made out of fruit. How did—what—why? How!? She made a mental note to look into these apricorns later. If she could figure out how they were made and get a few seeds, then...well, maybe her home could put up more of a fight than she'd thought.

    ...wait, allergic whatnow?

    "Hold on, uh, what were you saying about a reaction?" Astra asked.

    "Oh, yeah. Apricorns trigger pokemon's shrinking ability." Brendan shrugged. "Dunno how they got into the ball, but it was how they fit."

    Astra blinked at him. "...what shrinking ability?"

    "The—the shrinking ability." Brendan shrugged. "All pokemon can do it. How else could they fit in the balls?"

    "I thought they just turned into energy, or something???" Astra said, incredulous. "Wait, all pokemon? Are you sure?"

    Brendan shrugged helplessly. "Yeah! I'm not sure what to tell you, it's just how it works."

    "But I—" Astra cut herself off, feeling disorientated. Pokemon shrank to fit inside pokeballs? All pokemon? But she couldn't shrink!

    ...could she? It wasn't like she'd ever tried. How would she, anyway? Maybe if she imagined herself sort of drawing inwards—

    There was a sucking sensation, and Astra's world went dark. She screamed, flailing around as she was knocked over by the sudden weight of some thick, all-encompassing fabric.

    "What? What!?"

    "Astra!?" Brendan boomed, his voice much louder than normal. "What—huh!? Where are you!?"

    "I don't know!" Astra yelled, clawing away the thick sheets. "It's dark and there's something wrapped around me—"

    In the distance, Astra could hear May groan. "The fuck are you two—" she grumbled at incredible volume, then paused. "What the hell? Why is—"

    Astra fumbled through the last of the opressive covering and popped out into light. "I'm out!" she gasped, scrambling out of the folds. She gasped for air, taking a moment to breathe. Shaking her head, she stood up and looked around.

    "I'm not sure what happ..." she started, then trailed off as she looked at the room. From atop a mesa of Robe and wood, she saw the wide plains of Table and Carpet stretching before her. Above, numerous suns lit the ceiling tiles in burning, artificial light. To her left she saw Brendan, tall as a mountain and gaping down at her stupidly. To her right she saw May halfway off the Couch Ranges, staring at her with wide eyes. She looked down, seeing nothing but herself, now about half an inch tall and completely exposed.

    There was a moment of burning adrenaline and crashing thoughts before it all fell away, a euphoric calm overtaking Astra's mind. She looked up, meeting her friends gazes with a blank smile.

    "Welp."

    "What the fuck." May said.

    As if from a great distance, Astra saw herself raise a hand. "I can explain."

    Brendan worked his mouth for a moment. "...can you?"

    Astra considered this for a second.

    "No," she said, serenely. "Not really."

    Psychic power flared. There was a muted pop, and then Astra was gone.
     
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    Hyphen 29 - Arcade
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    • Hyphen 29

    Arcade


    Astra grimaced as she followed May through the arcade. Strange machines blinked with searing lights and belted out high-pitched music, many of them accompanied by humans screaming emotion into a void only she could hear—along with the occasional regular scream. Noise had been a new and uncomfortable aspect to city life, but this place seemed to amplify the worst qualities of each variety to new levels.

    "It's kinda loud," Astra complained, wincing as one machine let off a flurry of chimes. "Are we going to be here for long?"

    "Aw, come on!" May cajoled with a grin. "Just relax, you'll get used to it! We haven't even played a game yet. You'll forget all about it once you find one you like."

    In the distance, someone lost a game with extreme disgrace. Astra flinched and rubbed at her ears, grimacing. May looked at her and hesitated.

    "Tell you what, how about I just buy like, a handful of tokens; if you still wanna dip after I run out then we can go, alright?"

    "Thank you," Astra said, quietly. "...what are tokens?"

    "The games don't work unless you put a few coins in, and you buy those from token machines."

    "Ah." You had to pay to have fun too? Well, she guessed that made sense. Sometimes her Grandpa wouldn't let her go play without doing a few chores first, maybe it was like that? Astra watched May fiddle with a large red box with a golden inscription reading 'TOKENS' lined across the top. Coins clinked against a metal basin, and May turned around and showed Astra a small bronze disc covered with intricate engravings.

    "Behold," May proclaimed, holding it aloft. "A token!"

    "Neat." Astra said, eyeing the circle. Hopefully she didn't get a lot of them...

    "Don't worry, these'll vanish quick." May grinned, shoving the lot in a pocket. "Now, where the hell is Brendan?"

    They found Brendan at a small area in the corner filled with a few tables next to a window where a yawning man was handing out food. Brendan looked up while swallowing a bite of some kind of meat tube half-wrapped in bread. He waved, beckoning them over.

    "Oh hey! I was wondering when you'd get here," he said with a smile. He nodded at Astra. "How'd you like class, Astra?"

    "It was really interesting!" Astra said, brightening. "I learned a lot. I kind of want to go again, but Roxanne's next class isn't until next week and we'll be gone by then."

    May snorted. "Do it five days a week for nine months a year and the charm will wear off real quick."

    "I didn't go to school for too long myself," Brendan said. ("Are you gonna finish that?" Astra asked. Brendan handed her the rest of his hotdog.) "I was exempt under apprenticeship when I started working for my dad's lab after I turned twelve."

    "Not the Trainer exemption?" May asked. "Coulda got out two years earlier."

    Brendan shook his head. "I'm a decent trainer, but I wasn't enough of a prodigy for that. They only give out around a dozen of those a year on average anyway. Did you try?"

    "No."

    Astra popped the last bit of hotdog in her mouth. She chewed, pondering the food thoughtfully. Bread was still a relatively new experience, the crushed and baked grains coming in such a wide variety that it was impossible to generalize. In this case, it merely served as a soft, somewhat dry cushion to hold what lay inside. The meat tube was a bit chewy but serviceable enough, and the dull yellow sauce on top was delightfully tangy.

    "This is pretty good!" she decided. "What was that yellow stuff?"

    "Mustard," Brendan answered, smiling. "You can get ketchup, relish, and mayo too but—"

    "Alright, enough yapping!" May said, clapping her hands. "Let's play some games!"

    May led the trio over to one of the cabinets that littered the arcade floor. The screen flashed vibrantly, the title of the game—Back Alley Blitz—displayed proudly above a side scrolling array of strange characters. She put a few tokens into a dimly glowing orange slot and the display flashed, presumably allowing them access.

    "This is a game, right?" Astra asked, uncertainly. She was familiar with the animated screen due to her exposure to the TV—even if the drawings looked like they were made of squares rather than smooth lines—but the tilting rod and packed array of buttons were a mystery. "What do I do, exactly?"

    "Oh here, let me show you," Brendan said, leaning over and pointing at the controls. "Use the joystick to move around and select your character—"

    Astra ended up selecting a tall man with a massive circular ball of bifurcated hair who moved like he was dancing. May picked a roughly dressed guy with what looked like an upside-down pokeball for a head and Brendan chose a regal girl who seemed to emanate blue-tinted fire from her hands.

    "Alright, I've, uh, selected my character," Astra said. She watched her character bopping to the music curiously as a number on-screen counted down. What strange moves. "What happens next?"

    "Now we fight with them!" May cheered.

    "We what? How!?"

    "Hit buttons and find out!"

    Informative. The countdown reached zero and suddenly the screen switched to show some dingy street. Their characters entered the scene in a ball of sparkling light, an explosion, and a whirl of blue flame respectively.

    "CLEAR THE STREETS, A NEW BOUT ROCKS THE ROAD! BEGIN THE BLITZ!"

    A whistle sounded and May and Brendan's characters, by an unspoken truce, ignored Astra and began to battle each other. Astra examined them for a moment, glancing between the fighters on screen to her friends' rapid button-mashing and stick-waggling. Tentatively, she tilted her stick left.

    Afro-man moved left. Astra stared. She hit a button. Afro-man struck out with a brief, whirling kick. She could control the characters on screen? Interesting. Television had reminded her of how the illusionists or the Smith could arrange images with the aid of lights and flame, but it was a rare day they let the audience dictate where the story went. This game went much deeper than simple dictation. What else could be done with it? Could the player go on an adventure from the safety of their home? See fantastic sights and interesting people without risking anything real?

    May's character exploded, sending Brendan's flame-wielder directly into Astra's Afro-man. The two were knocked down, but recovered swiftly and 'stared' at each other.

    "Ready to join the fun, Astra?" Brendan asked. His character inched closer, threateningly.

    Astra blinked. Oh. Right. They were using the game to beat each other senseless. In that way it reminded her of pokemon battling. Issuing commands and watching another execute them.

    It always seemed to come down to fighting, didn't it?

    "Are you ready?" Astra shot back, re-focusing on the game. Best to pay attention, she had a brawl to win. "Take this! Hya!"

    Despite her boast, Astra didn't manage to win any of the following rounds, even with her friends taking it easy on her. Part of this could have been her absolute naivety in the realm of video games, it could have been her unpracticed twitch movements and unfamiliarity with the controls, or it could even be that the buttons were so close together that her giant non-human fingers kept hitting two of them at the same time.

    The last game ended with her accidentally sliding into an attack and getting blasted off the screen. Astra glared at the controls, then huffed and stepped away, rubbing at her eyes. The displays were really grainy and the unnatural brightness wasn't doing her eyes any favors.

    Astra heard the whoosh of flame, and turned to see Brendan's character spewing enough azure fire to blow May's character out of the arena.

    "Woo!" Brendan cheered, raising his arms in victory. "That was a tough one! Good game!"

    Brendan raised a palm, looking at May expectantly. May looked at him, eyes lidded and mouth thin.

    "Tch," she scoffed, grudgingly returning his high-five. "You just got lucky."

    "You're just mad that you got PWN'd by my leet skills," Brendan said, grinning ear-to-ear.

    Astra blinked and looked at Brendan, confused. "Pawned?"

    "Absolutely not!" May screeched, pulling Brendan's hat over his face. This did nothing to stop his uproarious laughter. May shook her head. "No, just...no. Nevermind him," she said, looking at Astra. "How was your first time with one of the greatest games ever made? I know you kinda got your ass beat—"

    "I don't like it," Astra cut in, giving the machine a glare. "If that was the best one then I'm not sure I'm up for more."

    "Aw, c'mon. Don't be like that!" May gestured to the rest of the Arcade. "There's tons of different games around; they're not all fighters. Hey, maybe you can choose the next one, eh?"

    "Fine," Astra sighed, rubbing her head. "But I'm not sure what to pick. Plus my head is pounding like a...drum?" she trailed off, frowning. She looked around, confused. "Wait, that's not my head. I hear drums, and...a flute? Where is that music coming from?"

    Brendan shrugged. "Probably the dancing games."

    "There are dancing games!?"

    It was called Dragon Dance: Revelation, and it was not about dancing. Unlike the graceful artform her village practiced, the game seemed to be about stomping on one of the dance pad's eight arrows in time with both the arrows on screen and the music.

    "They don't even do anything with their arms!" Astra complained, exasperatedly gesturing at the two strangers currently competing against each other. They seemed to be doing well by the game's standards, but to hers they were abhorrent. "No spins, no flips, they barely even cross-step! You can't call this dancing! They're just—just throwing a tantrum on a beat!"

    The mere thought of the concept of 'dancing' being applied to this ugly, static stomping of feet makes her want to tear the two off the stage and dunk them in an offal pit. Hatchlings had more grace than this!

    "Well, the game isn't really made to see those kinds of things," Brendan explained. "Rhythm games aren't about cool moves, just timing. There are others where you strum on a guitar or tap keys on a keyboard, but none of them are that, uh, thorough."

    "Just because you don't need to doesn't mean you shouldn't try!" Astra argued, fuming. "Following a rhythm is easy. You could at least liven it up a little while you do it."

    May chuckled, her calculating gaze roving over the game in question. "Big words for a girl who's never even played one," she said. A gleaming eye turned on Astra, accompanied by a predatory smirk. "Got the moves to back them up?"

    Astra raised a fist and clenched it, giving May her own combative smirk. "Wanna find out?"

    Brendan chuckled behind them, scratching the back of his head nervously. "Already competing, huh?"

    Astra and May stared each other down, the air between them positively crackling with energy. It quickly ran down into awkward, impatient shuffling as they all waited for the current players to actually finish. Once the two players left, Astra and May stepped up in their place.

    Astra looked down at the dance pad. Eight arrows pointed out from the center and even her light steps were enough to make one light up when she tried it. Mindful of her dress, she tapped a few in quick succession and found that her new clothing didn't noticeably hamper her movement.

    "Ready?" May asked, hopping in place. She looked at Astra, eyes fierce.

    "You know it!" Astra replied, grinning back.

    May inserted a token and hit random. Artwork and song titles spun by before the screen flashed, revealing twin sets of eight arrows atop a rapidly changing background of abstract shapes, musical notes, and...piano keys?

    Then the music began, and Astra had no more time to think.

    Piano strings intertwined with a spark of electricity, a frantic, hyperactive stream of energy. Arrows rose in time with the notes, not quite in the massive flood the last players had been facing, but formidable in scope all the same. Astra's feet skipped around the platform, her legs seamlessly flowing from one pad to the next. She was right, this wasn't hard at all! Well, keeping her eyes on the arrows was annoying, but just hitting the right ones was simple.

    "I don't see much arm movement there, Astra. Game too hard?" May taunted, even as she missed a few notes herself. "What's wrong? I thought you were gonna show us how to dance!"

    Astra smirked. "Don't worry, I'm just learning the rhythm. This is the first time I've heard this after all. But if you're that impatient..."

    She'd almost gotten it. If she was right, the chorus would repeat right about...!

    "I guess I'll just step it up!"

    Astra spun. Her arms bloomed outwards, the song guiding her hands through strange and flourishing displays as her feet sprung from step to step. This wasn't the graceful dancing of her village; it couldn't be, not with this hyper-energetic music and her own lack of experience. But this wild and frenetic alternative came to her just as easily, as natural as the music flowed from her violin.

    "Woah," May exclaimed, a flurry of miserable 'POOR!' and 'MISS!' flooding her screen as she did.

    "Damn," Brendan said, barely audible over the music. "She's actually doing it."

    Astra grinned, her eyes tracking the screen even as her motions spun her to-and-fro. They thought mere stomping to a beat could compare to this? This was the epitome of style, the beating heart of rhythm! A connection between body and sound, refined into art!

    But alas, it could not last forever. She could hear the song winding down. As the final berry on top, Astra jumped, spinning around once in midair before falling on the last two arrows in a perfect curtsy.

    Then she bent double and gasped for air, clutching at her head. She may have gone a bit overboard. Just a tad.

    She heard clapping. Taking a deep breath to even herself out, she turned to find a half-dozen people—Brendan among them—had gathered around to watch, all of them either clapping or whistling appreciatively. Astra flushed red and waved, chuckling nervously.

    Shaking her head, she turned to May, who was looking at the screen contemplatively.

    "How was that?" Astra asked, folding her arms and smirking.

    "Hm?" May blinked. She looked at Astra and gave her an approving smile. "Pretty damn amazing! Sure showed those guys. Apparently you can do a whole ass jig while playing DDR."

    "Hah!" Astra laughed, holding her head high. "I knew it! Those lazy fakers wouldn't know what dancing was if it bit them in the—"

    May coughed. Astra paused, eyeing her friend curiously. May jerked her head toward the game screen. Slowly, Astra turned to look.

    "ABYSMAL! INSERT TOKENS TO PLAY AGAIN!" The screen cheered.

    Astra stared. Her head hurt.

    May snorted, giving her a wry grin. "Yeah. You missed like, three-fourths of the notes. Turns out you gotta keep your eyes on the screen and actually step on the arrows to score good!" She shrugged sarcastically. "Who knew?"

    Astra held her face in her hands and groaned. May patted her back.

    "You did look pretty cool, though," May said. "Wanna go again and kick my ass legit?"

    "Just hit the fucking button."

    They played another round. Astra didn't find it nearly as engaging without actual dancing; oh, sure, timing everything right was kinda fun, but it just really didn't satisfy the need to move properly. Nevertheless, she hit all the buttons exactly on time and scored a perfect game.

    In celebration, the game let her enter a three letter abbreviation of her name on the leaderboards. On May's advice, Astra contributed to the grand tradition of arcades worldwide, and thus the song was crowned with a new champion: ASS. Somehow Brendan didn't find it quite as funny, and his sigh of exasperation only served to set off a round of giggles.

    Stepping away from the tantrum simulator, Astra stumbled as her developing headache made itself known once more. She rubbed her eyes, the pressure relieving the ache for a moment.

    "I think I'm going to get a migraine if I stay here any longer," she said, squinting at her friends. "All these flashes and buzzes are really getting to me."

    Brendan frowned, concerned eyes flicking across Astra's face. "Ah. Yeah, of course we can. Do you need water?"

    May watched on as Brendan fussed over Astra, her own frown showing shades of annoyance and disappointment. She pulled out her remaining tokens and looked them over before sighing.

    "Hey," she said. "I've only got a few of these things left, and I can't really get a refund. If you're up for it, we could just dump 'em in—" she paused, looking around. She pointed to a machine. "—A crane game or something. Get a souvenir before we go."

    May smiled uncertainly, half-shrugging. Astra looked over at the machine, which was simply a glass cage filled with prizes and an overhanging claw-like mechanism. Astra considered it. She had come here at May's urging, and the other girl seemed a bit stung by how poorly the night was going. If Astra could help her walk away with a happier memory...well, it didn't look too stressful.

    "I guess I could give it a go," she agreed.

    May brightened, though Brendan looked uncertain. He'd seemed ready to pull them all out of the building.

    "Are you sure?" He asked as the trio made their way over to the machine. "You don't have to push yourself if you're feeling bad."

    "Hey, if I can salvage even a little bit of tonight, I think it'll be worth it." Astra said, giving him a strained grin. "May was really excited to show me this place; even if it didn't work out, I don't want to end it on a sour note. Besides," she said, looking at the glass box filled with stuffed pokemon dolls. "This looks easy. How do I play?"





    "Why won't it just grab the thing!?" Astra yelled, glaring at the limp-wristed robot arm as it once again dropped a plush Treecko doll halfway to the prize hole.

    "That's how they get you," May said, leaning against the case. "These things are always soft-gripped fucks, so you gotta dump cash into it to get the thing you want. But people still get shit from them, so I think they're programmed to grab harder every so often."

    "No, no, that's crap," Brendan said, shaking his head. "Look, you gotta line it up right, get some good leverage, maybe spend a pull or two nudging it around so you can go in for the kill."

    "Well either way apparently I suck at it!" Astra grit her teeth, glaring at the collection of prizes. She was tempted to just telekinesis the things out, but this situation was not helping her headache! "Screw it, there's only one token left so I'm just dropping this somewhere random."

    "Last chance luck!" May cheered, casually slamming a fist on the glass. "C'mon you stupid box, cough up the goods and end us off on a high note!"

    Forgoing the Treecko doll, Astra maneuvered the crane over the middle where an assortment of awards had been piled up. She didn't particularly care what she grabbed at this point so she dithered the crane around the area a bit and then hit the button. Astra stepped back and folded her arms, giving the claw a stink eye as it descended into the plushy depths. She blinked when it perfectly grabbed onto something white and tugged it straight into the air.

    May whooped and pointed at the prize. "Look, you got something!"

    "Finally!" Astra exclaimed, throwing her arms up.

    "Nice!" Brendan said. He looked at the prize as the machine dropped it in the hatch. "What is it?"

    "I'm not sure, but it sure is soft!" Astra said, reaching into the chute and pulling the doll out.

    It was a Ralts.

    Astra stared at the vacantly smiling figure. Ten inches tall, the doll's glassy eyes were hidden under a dome of green cloth and a pair of plastic red horns embedded into a head about a third larger than it should be. Two stubby arms protruded from the solid robe, and though there were two legs the robe didn't actually have an opening for them at the bottom, instead having them be formless white pillars with a small coat tail.

    "...huh."

    May blinked. "Oh hey, it's that pokemon I saw on 102. A...Ralts, I think? Neat."

    "Is it?" Brendan asked. "Oh, that's what they look like. Neat."

    "Neat," Astra echoed, still staring.

    It was neat. Also terrifying, for a number of reasons. She'd known, abstractly, that there were probably Ralts and Kirlia elsewhere in the world; her Grandfather had said the village had only been made with the totality of the population on Hoenn alone, after all. But apparently her kind were so well known elsewhere that humanity had made plush effigies in their image.

    She wondered, for a fleeting moment, what they were like. Without the safety and knowledge of the village, vulnerable to Humans the same as any other pokemon. Would they still be like her? Or would they be...

    Her head hurt.

    "I'd like to leave now," she said. This time, nobody objected. Astra felt the pressure fade as they exited the building, the triple-layered din vanishing into the background. Incandescent lights still flooded the city streets alongside unrestrained emotions from every passing human, but none of it was nearly as aggressive as before.

    "That's better," she sighed, glancing up at the sparsely starry night sky. "Nice and—well, not quiet, but...yeah."

    "We should probably get you back to your apartment," Brendan said. "Rest easy for a bit. Do you need any water? I can grab a packet of headache medicine if you need it."

    "Water sounds nice." Astra agreed as the three began to walk back. "I'm already feeling a bit better, so I'll hold off on the medicine unless it lingers."

    Behind them, May stared at the sidewalk sullenly, arms folded. "Can't believe this was such a bust," she mumbled, glaring a hole in the concrete. "Barely played two games. Great fucking idea, let's just throw her into a mosh pit next time you moron—"

    Brendan looked back at her, first in confusion, then with a melancholic smile. "Hey," he said, cutting May's tirade short and putting a hand on her shoulder. "Just because there was a problem doesn't mean you have to beat yourself up about it. It was a fine idea; maybe a little premature, but neither of us knew Astra would be so uncomfortable in an arcade."

    "I still dragged her in," May argued, scowling. She sighed. "Whatever, it's done with anyway. Just gotta figure out something else to do now that gaming is off the table..."

    Astra frowned. "I mean, it's not like the games were the problem," she said, "It was just...all the people, the flashing lights, the constant noise...it was too much. I felt like I could barely think."

    "Arcades can be like that, yeah. Especially the big ones," Brendan agreed. He looked at Astra, a sad smile crossing his face. "I'm sorry that things turned out like this. Did you like what you got to try, at least?"

    "I mean, the rhythm game was...alright," Astra allowed. "Just named wrong. I could see myself trying it again. And the doll is nice." A bit weird, but kind of endearing in a way.

    May's lips twitched. "Not a fan of the fighter?" She asked, shades of her usual teasing bluster returning to her voice.

    Astra rolled her eyes. "Maybe if I knew what I was doing! You guys ran circles around me the whole time and I kept messing up the controls."

    "Think that means you need to 'get good'," May jabbed, smirking. Her amusement was quickly replaced by disappointment, and she sighed. "Not like you're likely to get any practice in, I guess."

    "Didn't you say you were going to try to get your Pokedex to play Tetris?" Astra asked, recalling their conversation on the day they'd arrived in Rustboro. "Could you do the same for the fighter?"

    May's face scrunched up. "Maybe, but they aren't really built for that. You'd need to get an actual handheld console, and they aren't cheap."

    Astra rolled her eyes, exasperated. "Geeze, everything has to cost something, doesn't it? I still need money to restock my food, how am I supposed to buy—uh, that?"

    May shrugged helplessly. "Don't look at me, I barely have more than you do."

    "Wait, you're both broke? Is that why you guys have been making me pay for all your food!?" Brendan asked, astounded and a little irritated.

    Awkward silence filled the air, both girls looking away in embarrassment.

    May chuckled nervously. "I mean..." she trailed off, coughing into a fist and refusing to meet Brendan's gaze.

    Astra scratched the back of her head, face red. "Well, we've been kinda busy, with all the Devon stuff, and the class today, and, well, my new clothes cost a lot, you know!" she pouted, pulling the brim of her hat down and swishing her dress from side to side.

    A hot flash of guilt settled in Astra's stomach as soon as the words were sent. Well, that was all true, but if Brendan hadn't been here she and May could have still gone fishing or picked berries, and breakfast at the hotel was free. They really hadn't needed to burden him like that; she could blame May for instigating it most of the time, but she didn't exactly rebuke her. Well, she'd make up to him somehow. Food for food? He'd like her soup, surely.

    Brendan looked at Astra and sighed, folding his arms and glancing away.

    "Yeah, I guess that would do it," he muttered. He shook his head and refocused. "Well, if you're short on cash then you could always enter a battle competition; you don't pay for losing so bare minimum you'll make enough for a week of cheap kibble. There's always one or two happening somewhere, and I'm pretty sure the Gym is hosting one tomorrow afternoon." Brendan raised an eyebrow. "Unless you wanna do some odd jobs like catching a dozen Shroomish for a pharmacy...?"

    "Fuck the pharmacy, that competition sounds right up my alley!" May exclaimed, pumping her fist. "Can't go wrong with a good fight. How about it, Astra," she asked, grinning at the smaller girl. "Wanna go beat people up and take their lunch money?"

    "Please don't phrase it like that," Brendan sighed. "We're trainers, not grade-school malcontents."

    "Just lunch?" Astra asked, smirking at May. "I'll beat them so hard they'll only be able to eat dirt for a month!"

    "You too, Astra?" Brendan asked, shooting her a look of mock betrayal. He shook his head, muttering to himself. "Playground bullies, the both of them..."

    Astra giggled at his put-out expression, then winced as her headache pulsed again. Not out of the woods yet; she'd have to lie down for a while once they made it back. Still, she couldn't help but be a bit excited for tomorrow. It felt like it'd been forever since her last proper battle, and the money was fresh jam on the fish. A few expected thrills were just what she needed, and she couldn't pass up a perfect opportunity to train her team and practice her music. After that, she'd restock her supplies, grab the stuff from Devon, meet up with Mr. Briney down south, and set sail for Dewford.

    Astra smiled, squeezing the Ralts doll to her chest. Tomorrow was going to be fun!



    Last chapter I promised that I'd 'get the hell out of Rustboro no matter how long the chapter got!'

    This...actually happened! I wrote up until they left the city. It was nearly 12k words long.

    It was also, very unfortunatly, kind of a disjointed, rushed mess, so I had to split it up into three parts anyway.

    The good news is that the other two parts are already mostly written! Hopefully it wont take months on end to polish them up for posting.

    Hopefully you're not too sick of what I consider slice-of-life yet. This section was supossed to be offset by the 'rest of the chapter' but whoops.

    Next time we'll have a bit of pokemon action, and after that is a trip to Devon and out of Rustboro!

    Onto personal news, started college in January and it's kicking my ass. Also I had to put my cat down in February which—alongside college and the giant problems in the text—just absolutely shattered my will to work on this for a while.

    Also other authors are hogging my beta's free time—

    Ahem.     Go check out Human Heartstone! It also stars a Kirlia disguising herself as a human, and I believe it's due for an update soonish.

    Also Profit Majin, another artquest by my man Dexexe. You're a new employee at a megacorp, and your first day on the job you're handed a sword and get shoved into a dungeon to get materials for your corporate overlords. What do?

    Also also There are Only Three Levels again, because it's amazing. `A level three villain has reduced the entire world to level one. A lone heroine embarks to stop her.`

    Anyway, hopefully you enjoyed. Tell me what you think!
     
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    • Hyphen 30 - Lambent
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    • Hyphen 30

    Lambent


    Rustboro's Gym echoed with the sounds of battle and chatter—the clash of elemental attacks and shouts of effort and instruction ringing through the vast building. Such an environment wasn't unusual. The Gym was built for such activities, from vicious battles between teams of pokemon, to awe-inspiring bouts against Roxanne herself, and even to various types of rock-themed exercise.

    However, today's atmosphere was much more tense, and with good reason: in return for a mere portion of the proceeds, the gym had become host to an amateur-scene Pokemon battle and betting event. The entire layout of the gym had rearranged itself almost overnight to fit in a half-dozen separate battle arenas, each one overseen by a commentator and home to a couple rows of spectator benches. Apparently having a gym made entirely out of stone and home to a great many Rock types made rearrangement much easier.

    As Astra understood it, so long as she wasn't obviously terrible, she could simply keep entering battles over and over for visitors to wager on for the next two days. Compensation-wise, if she won, she got a percentage of the winnings; if she lost, she got a much smaller flat participation payment. Either way it wasn't a lot, but as long as she and May won a few times, they'd be able to travel comfortably for the next week or so.

    Which was how Astra found herself in the middle of her sixth battle today.

    "Gloom, use Poison Powder!" a young girl yelled, fists clenched.

    Astra raised her bow to her violin, striking the strings in a harsh wave.

    Retreat, then sand flurry.

    Astra's Nincada leapt backwards, aborting his previous assault. A wave of poisonous purple haze erupted from Gloom—a drooling blue pokemon with stubby limbs and large red flower buds for a scalp—and the haze engulfed the center of the arena. In response, Nincada drew his claw back and infused it with pale brown energy before dragging it across the ground with all his might. A great cloud of sand billowed from the strike, meeting the purple haze halfway and dragging the toxic particles to the ground.

    Dashing through his grainy cloud, Nincada buzzed past the remaining poison haze, protected by the sand on his chitinous shell. Orienting himself through his trainer's eyes, Nincada burst into the center, arm glowing with dim green energy.

    The opposing trainer's eyes widened. She called out, "Wait, no! Gloom, use—!"

    Nincada struck. A flurry of blows fell upon Gloom, each cutting deeper than the last. Gloom yelled out in pain as a web of red lines opened on its back, before one final swipe sent the Grass pokemon tumbling to the ground in defeat.

    "And with a masterful display of tactics, Nincada has cut down Trainer Karen's Gloom!"

    A man's booming voice echoed throughout the gym. On the sidelines, a couple dozen spectators gasped in shock, then cheered and cursed in equal measure. Enthusiasm oozed from the announcer as he continued.

    "It's not looking good for Karen! After besting that monster of a Grovyle through sheer attrition, Violinist Astra's Nincada has just brought Karen down to her last pokemon! Will this musical master net another victory, or will Karen pull out a last-minute turnaround for our despairing debtors? Hope you bet wisely, folks!"

    Astra let the music fall to a holding rhythm, her previous tense tempo unsuited for this momentary breather. She looked to the side, eyeing the crowd. Many of them were greeting her with wide smiles and cheers, but a few were sending her dark glares. Astra frowned at the grimy pulse of negativity they gave off. Well, it served them right for wagering on her loss!

    Still, she had to admit that she was having a blast. She was earning money, practicing her music, and training her pokemon all at the same time! Her only regret was that this 'Rookie Rumble' event wasn't a constant; if her team was willing, Astra could have easily spent the rest of her week in the Rustboro Gym just getting paid to fight other trainers. She didn't even have to win, but she made more if she did.

    Not that she would ever do less than her best, of course. Losing wasn't fun at the best of times, and with an audience it was even worse. Thankfully she'd won a bit more than she'd lost so far, her record currently 3-2. It would have been higher if she'd foreseen a glaring issue with her team's capabilities.

    Sparing a glance across the gym, she spotted May shouting at—oh dang, May was down to Tentacool? Astra watched as the aquatic pokemon—clearly uncomfortable to be wriggling about on land—brought his arms to the small, shiny red protrusion in his forehead. A moment later a prismatic beam shot out, lancing toward—ah, a Wingull. No wonder May had sent out Tentacool.

    "Alright!" Karen shouted, drawing Astra's attention back to her own bout. "All or nothing, let's go Beautifly!"

    Astra closed her eyes, letting loose a brief, pained sigh. Of course her opponent's last pokemon would be a Flying type. That blasted group had been making her life difficult all day; half of her team was massively disadvantaged against them, and the rest had barely any methods to actually land a hit!

    Knowing Nincada was useless here, Astra recalled him and, after a moment's thought, decided on Slakoth. Hopefully her opponent hadn't seen her earlier fights; this trick wouldn't work so well if her opponent knew how to avoid it.

    "Go, Slakoth!" she commanded, throwing the pokeball forward. A flash of red heralded her furry companion, flat on the ground and baggy-eyed.

    "Slaa..." he whined, cumbersomely rising to his feet as if weights were strapped to his limbs. Across and above the battlefield, a giant butterfly let loose a trilling cry, their iridescent black wings flittering with flashes of yellow highlights.

    "And Karen pulls out a be-yu-tiful Beautifly!" The announcer cheered. "And in response, our magnificent maestro has called forth her sleepy Slakoth! Don't let his dreamy demeanor deceive you, that tired terror is as tough as a Tauros!"

    "It won't matter how strong your Slakoth is when it can't move!" Karen yelled, thrusting a hand forward. "Beautifly, Stun Spore!"

    Beautifly trilled, rapidly flapping their wings. A cloud of sparking yellow-orange dust fell with each beat, the wingbeats scattering the dust toward Slakoth.

    Astra's eyes narrowed. Her violin sang.

    Spear wall.

    Earthen energy coated Slakoth's fists, and with a heave of effort he lifted them into the air and brought them down, the stone below crunching under the force.

    "Slak!" he shouted, and a wall of stone spires erupted before him. The spores fell upon the spires and stalled, the breeze that carried them breaking upon the stony obstruction.

    "Eh?" Karen exclaimed, shocked. "Wh—did you Rock Tomb yourself!? Why would—hey! You blocked my Stun Spore! No fair!"

    Astra raised an eyebrow. She only just noticed?

    Karen fumed. "Gah! You won't get off that easily! That wall might've stopped my spores, but you're still open! Beautifly, fly up and use Gust from above!"

    Acquire armament.

    Slakoth trudged through an onslaught of harsh winds, claws wrapping around the shaft of one of his stone spikes. With a swift motion he tore the top half off, leaving a two-foot rock needle in his hands. From the gap a gale wind poured forth, carrying the remnants of the stun spore cloud. Slakoth winced as the combined concussive bluster and spore cloud battered at his limbs, the orange dust sending flickering sparks through his fur.

    "What'dja go and do that for?" Karen yelled, smirking. "You just broke your own defense wide open! Let's finish this, Beautifly. Bring that smelly Slakoth down with an Air Cutter!"

    End it.

    Beautifly rose higher, wings shining with sky-blue energy. Concentrating it along the edge, they brought down their wing and sent forth a brilliant sliver of wind, pure cutting force given form. The gleaming, razor-sharp burst of air bore down on the gap in the wall—

    Slakoth threw the spike.

    The Air Cutter burst apart. There was a sound akin to tearing paper and the distant crash of stone. Beautifly hung in the air for a moment, as if confused, before their eyes unfocused and they gently fell to the ground, one wing folded and crumpled.

    "Beautifly!" Karen shrieked, running over to her fallen pokemon.

    Astra breathed out, drawing her simple tune to a quick conclusion. The announcer was yelling about her victory, but she'd long since tuned him out as well as the cheers and curses of her small audience. She gave Slakoth a quick once-over—he was pretty bruised from the gusts, and it seemed the spores had actually afflicted him with paralysis. Good thing he hadn't missed, Astra was doubtful that he would've been able to take a second shot. Astra recalled Slakoth to his Pokeball and walked over to Karen, giving the other girl a respectful nod.

    "Well fought."

    Karen looked up and glared, eyes shining with frustration and unshed tears. She opened her mouth, then closed it and rubbed at her eyes, huffing. Standing up, she recalled her Beautifly and begrudgingly returned Astra's nod.

    "Yeah, good match. Whatever." she sniffed, clutching Beautifly's pokeball close to her chest, turning away and leaving the stage for Nurse Joy's aid station. "I totally had that. Stupid, lousy, cheaty violin, can't even hear the commands—"

    Astra watched her go, bemused. Shrugging, Astra gave the announcer a nod—he'd be letting whoever handled the money know about the outcome—and trundled off-stage herself. May was still trying to land a hit on that Wingull, so Astra followed Karen's example and dropped her team off to heal while she sat down on a stone bench nearby to wait for May.

    Astra watched her friend's battle unfold from afar. Tentacool only managed to score two glancing hits with his Aurora Beam before Wingull knocked him out, and then May's Lotad barely did anything at all. His Water Gun—when it hit—slid off Wingull's feathers like faint mist instead of a high-pressure water jet. Bursts of concussive wind knocked him out shortly after.

    Combusken managed a little better; his speed was enough to steer clear of the worst of the aerial bursts and his rather literal return fire managed to score hits every time. He even landed a solid kick and spiked Wingull into the floor.

    Whereupon May's opponent pulled out a Pelipper.

    Afterward, May dropped her injured team off with Joy then trudged over to Astra, all while fuming.

    "Flying types are bullshit," May said, throwing herself down onto the stone bench and immediately regretting it. "Ow, fuck!"

    May rubbed at her new soon-to-be bruise, grimacing.

    Astra giggled. "I knew you weren't doing well but I didn't think you'd hit rock bottom that fast!"

    May's forehead fell into her other hand. "I hate you," she groaned. "I hate you so much."

    "You shouldn't lie, you know," Astra chided, grinning. "All those contradictions will rot your mind! Still," she sighed, slumping back and gazing listless at the ceiling. "I get what you mean. Grovyle and Nincada are both horribly type-disadvantaged and I only really get one shot with Slakoth's Rock Tomb trick before they learn how to dodge. Marill does her best, but just using Water Gun over and over gets predictable."

    May nodded, mouth set in a thin line. "My guys aren't much better. Sure Aurora Beam ruins their day, but on dry land Tentacool's a sitting...squid. Half the time it's a goddamn Wingull so Combusken gets knocked out early and Lotad just falls over! Poochyena can't even hit the bastards—the fucks just crawl on the ceiling and fire off Gusts or Water Guns 'till I forfeit."

    Astra hummed. "Sounds like we should do something about that."

    May sat up, lips quirked. "Sounds like you have an idea."

    Astra thought back to yesterday's Pokemon Type lesson. "I don't know where to find an Electric type, but we're in a Rock gym, and there's a mountain right down 116. I figure it'd be pretty easy to—"

    "No no no," May interrupted, waving a hand at Astra. "Type advantage won't do crap if we can't actually fight them. What we need to do is level the playing field."

    Astra's eyes widened. "I think I see what you're getting at."

    May grinned. "Yep. If a bunch of two-bit losers are giving us this much trouble, imagine what we could do if we got some of our own."

    Astra returned the grin, giving May a resolute nod. "Alright, I'm in."

    "Good." May stood up, gaze falling on her former opponent, whose Pelipper was spraying down some hapless beginner. Her eyes narrowed, brows furrowing in determination.

    "Now, let's get to hunting."

    A moment passed. Astra tilted her head.

    "Aren't our pokemon still healing?"

    May slumped. "Well...yeah. Alright!" she rallied, raising a resolute fist. "After our teams heal, we're going to find Flying types of our own!"

    "Where are we going, anyway?" Astra questioned. "Just like, into the forest, or...?"

    May sat back down, face blank. She stared at the floor for a moment before taking out her Pokedex and dialing a number.

    "Brendan!" she said into the device's speaker, cheerily. "Say, where can a girl get a Flying pokemon around here?"





    "This view is amazing!" Astra exclaimed, gazing at the distant, terrace-like rock faces that made up the far half of Route 115. They extended high into the sky, far taller than any of the buildings they'd left behind in Rustboro to the south, but the extreme hills were nothing but pale imitators of the lofty peak of Mt. Chimney to the northeast. Berry-laden bushes and tall, broad-leafed coastal trees made up the nearer half of the route, which winded through a narrow plain along the coast.

    The route's beach would be their destination today. Brendan had been doing some sort of survey of the route while she and May were busy fighting, and had been quick to tell them about a flock of birds inhabiting the shoreline. He'd met them at the route entry sign and was now guiding them toward the gathered Flying types.

    Astra wondered about the distant rocky terraces. "Why is it called Meteor Falls, anyway?" she asked, turning to Brendan.

    "It's actually due to a meteorological event in the distant past," Brendan explained, turning onto the path towards the shore. "There's a local legend about a 'bright flash that lit up the moon', followed by a 'rain of stars'."

    "Bet that must've been one hell of a show," May said, hands behind her head. "Think we could find a meteor if we poked around? I bet someone'd pay loads for one."

    Brendan shook his head. "Anything that easy to find would've been taken ages ago."

    "Tch, figures," May grumbled, dropping her arms. She paused, raising a hand to shield her eyes from the sun as she peered ahead. She whistled. "This is 'just' a flock? The beach is swarming with birds. The hell is happening?"

    Astra couldn't help but share May's puzzlement. All along the coast, Astra could see mere glimmers of golden sand peeking out from underneath the great, heaving swathes of birds screeching and cawing at each other. What seemed like hundreds of Wingull—white balls-with-wings that sported long beaks and even longer wings—were scratching and squawking at an equal number of Taillow—small avians with wide beaks and dark blue feathers, white underbellies, and red faces.

    "They're just sitting around and screaming at each other," Astra said, tilting her head. She'd never seen so many in one place before; Taillow were common enough back home, but they'd never gathered in such numbers, and Wingull rarely ventured far from the coastline. "Is this normal?"

    "Yes, though it's a lot bigger than normal." Brendan answered, raising his voice to compensate for the gradually intensifying din of cawing. "Taillow and Wingull sometimes flock together like this due to their capability and frequency of interbreeding. North Rustboro Cove is a pretty common gathering space since the waters are shielded from the more vicious ocean life by those rocky spires in the distance and there's hardly any land threats. With a group this large, there's bound to be quite a few that'd be perfect for training."

    "Hoooh yeah!" May grinned, rubbing her hands together. "Just what I like to hear. Alright everyone, it's easy pickings, let's catch us some birds!"

    "Uh," Brendan started, confused. "Wait, did you mean me too? I wasn't really planning on—woah!"

    "Let's go, dumbass!" May cackled, grabbing Brendan by the wrist and charging straight at the flocks. "All right you feathery fucks, who wants to smite my enemies from on high!?"

    Astra watched, amusement warring with concern as she saw her friends plow into the chaos, a wave of angry birds scattering into the air. Electronic warbles cut the air as the two released their pokemon and streams of fire and spore clouds quickly cleared their immediate area of all but the bravest.

    Well. That was one way to do things, Astra supposed. Barging in, picking a fight, and taking whoever made it through the brawl. She didn't know if she wanted to find a new teammate like that, though. In some way, all of her pokemon had come to her: Birch had given her Treecko, Marill had challenged her after beating her to a berry bush, Slakoth had stolen her soup, and Nincada had more or less demanded to come with. She'd never been the instigator.

    Still, she was here to catch a Flying pokemon, and catch one she would. Astra strolled down the landside edge of the beach, looking out at the birds scattered across the sands. Maybe she could get a Wingull? Shooting off water guns from the air seemed effective enough, and they were decently quick. But they looked so silly! They were all wings and beak, and to be honest she wasn't very fond of their screeching honks.

    Taillow, on the other hand, would be...fine. She'd seen their fierce Pecks and cutting Wing Attacks often enough today to be sure they would do well, and they'd hung around the village's treetops often enough. She recalled the long, lazy days spent in the company of birdsong, occasionally levitating berries up towards the ones that sang the best. She'd try for one of them.

    Astra nodded to herself, absently coming to a stop and leaning against the cliff face. She examined the birds scattered across this stretch of sand; it was less crowded this far down, but she didn't lack for choice. Her gaze flicked from one dark-feathered bird to the next, skipping past the Wingull. Which one would she get? They were all so...similar. If she had a complaint, that would be it; none of the Taillow here really stood out. It might have been a bit petty, but she felt the species was just kind of...plain and ordinary.

    But just because they were common didn't mean they couldn't be great! May's Tentacool with his Aurora Beam was a prime example. She'd just have to polish them until they shone, just like the pebbles in her rock collection. Now if she could just pick one out of the crowd—

    A commotion caught her eye, and Astra looked to see that one of the flying Taillow had scuffed their landing and embedded themselves in the sand. She watched as the gathered birds milled around the trapped one in confusion, until another Taillow hopped over and pulled their flailing kin out from their hole. The freed bird shook the sand from their feathers, then chirped gratefully at their savior.

    Astra eyed the Taillow that had saved the trapped one. Well, compassion and beak strength were as good a place to start as any. Pushing herself off the rock face, she started walking toward the—

    There was something on her shoe.

    Astra jerked back with a startled cry, staring down at the wriggling white-yellow blob attached to her feet. The blob wobbled, then unfolded.

    A curious, innocent yellow face looked up at her with two shining black eyes to either side of a small white beak. Two long yellow feathers protruded from the top of its head, waving cheerily in the ocean breeze. On both sides, large, white, cottony wings retracted with an audibly soft fwish, surrounding its body in a poofy mass of fluff.

    "Swa!" it chirped, looking for all the world like a warm, golden sun resting in a bed of feathery clouds.

    Astra let out a low keening sound. "Oh my stars you're adorable!" she squealed, bending down and snatching it into her arms. She squeezed, hugging the pokemon for all she was worth. Seeming to enjoy this, it happily snuggled against her face, chirping excitedly.

    "Blu!"

    "And so soft!" Astra marveled. It felt like she was burying her hands in silky fuzz. "Ah, I could bury my face in this forever!"

    She squeezed the pokemon once more before pulling away, cradling it in her arms and smiling.

    "Gosh, you really do look like a cloudy sun, don't you?" she said, rubbing the top of its head to much preening. "What were you even doing—oh!"

    She looked down. Her left shoe, previously coated in dirt and sand, was now spotless. Astra blinked, then looked back at the pokemon in her arms.

    "Did you...clean my shoe?" she asked, surprised.

    The yellow bird chirped again, unfolding one of its cloud-like wings and waving it. Astra saw a patch of gray where the grime on her footwear had apparently been wiped off.

    "Swablu!" the bird cheered proudly.

    Astra blinked, then smiled. "Heh, well, thank you! Swablu? Is that what you are? Let me just—"

    Pulling an arm free, she retrieved her Pokedex and scanned the creature in her arms.

    "So you are!" she said, reading the passage that popped up. "Cleans things with their wings, not afraid of people—hah!" she barked in laughter. "Sitting on people's heads like a hat? Oh that's so sweet! Here, let me—"

    Astra lifted the Swablu up to her head. The yellow cloud-bird tweeted in joy and clambered aboard, perching on the crown and wrapped her wings around the brim. Astra laughed, reaching up to stroke the bird.

    "I guess it really is a sunhat now!" Astra laughed, grinning. Something in the Pokedex had caught her eye. "You're a Flying type, aren't you?"

    "Swa!" Swablu affirmed, chirping happily.

    What luck! If Swablu came with her, Astra would have a Flying type and the most adorable sun-puff she never knew she so desperately wanted! Judging by how friendly Swablu was, Astra didn't think it'd be a particularly hard negotiation either. She smiled.

    "Hey Swabu?" she asked, drawing out a pokeball and showing it to the bird. "Would you be interested in coming with me? I've actually been looking for a Flying type, and even though we just met I think you'd fit right in! You'd have to fight, but there's yummy food and—whoa!"

    Astra stumbled as Swablu abruptly jumped off her hat. She shook her head and pulled her hat back into place, confused. "Swablu?" Astra asked, turning around. Had she rejected the offer? But they'd gotten along so well—

    Astra recoiled. Behind her, a gargantuan blue bird was staring at her intently, a mere step away. They looked like a Swablu, except the two feathers on their head were much longer and there was a white circle enveloping each cheek. Their entire body was hidden inside a massive cloud of fluff, with two legless feet poking out of the bottom and four tail feathers sticking out the back.

    They were also as tall as Astra. The giant Altaria peered at her, and Astra stared back, eyes wide. She got the distinct impression they were measuring her, and something in the back of her head told her that she would very much regret the next few moments if the Altaria didn't like what they saw.

    On the ground, the little yellow Swablu ran toward her parent.

    "Swablu!" she chirped.

    The Altaria blinked and bent down, their sinuous neck lowering until they were eye-level with Swablu.

    "Swa swa!" the Swablu said, waving her wings around excitedly.

    The Altaria considered her. "Tair," they said, drawing themselves back up. They looked at Astra again. Astra gulped.

    "Um, hello!" she started, uneasily waving a hand. The Altaria tilted their head. Astra gave them an uncertain smile. "I...was just, you know, uh..." she tailed off as a thought hit her.

    Why was she using words for this? Straightening, she looked the Altaria in the eye and spoke her intent.

    Her and Swablu, hugging. Herself, feeding the small bird berries, soup, and strips of meat. Swablu, flying at foes under her command and striking them down, and then herself tending to Swablu's wounds with gentle care. Swablu playing with her other pokemon, sleeping on her hat, even turning into a golden version of her parent.

    "Your daughter is adorable, and I think we get along," Astra told the Altaria. "I would like to take her with me."

    Altaria stared at her. They were quiet for a long moment.

    "Ria."

    They looked down at Swablu, the golden bird digging into her parent's fluff. Altaria bent down and grabbed Swablu with their beak, then, raising their head, leaned forward and gently deposited the confused bird into Astra's arms.

    Swablu looked around, confused. "Swa?" she chirped, looking up at Altaria.

    Altaria brought their head down again and nuzzled Swablu, then stepped back and looked at Astra.

    Astra looked back, then gazed down at the Swablu in her arms. Swablu looked up and chirped happily. Astra smiled, then turned back to Altaria and nodded.

    "I'll take good care of her," she promised.

    Altaira stared at her for a moment more, then dipped their head. They took one last glance at Swablu, then raised their wings and burst into the air with a sudden gale. Astra yelped, holding onto her hat as the sheer force of the takeoff threatened to send it flying, then watched as Altaria began soaring off over the ocean. Astra smiled softly at the sight.

    Altaria then reared their head back and screamed, a bright purple beam erupting from their mouth and spearing through the ocean below. There was a heavy thoom as the waters erupted into a violent geyser. Altaria dived into the parted waves, a moment later reappearing with the smoking remains of some blue pokemon half again the Altaria's size, and then shooting into the distance with a burst of super-speed.

    Astra stared, her smile suddenly feeling strained. Swablu shifted around in her arms.

    "Blu!" she said, looking up at Astra. Astra looked down at the cloudy ball of sunshine in her arms. She shook her head, then chuckled.

    "Well, welcome to the team, Swablu." she asid, hugging her close. "Maybe one day you'll be that scary too."

    "Swa!" Swablu cheered.

    Astra deposited Swablu on her hat and turned back the way she came. She saw May and Brendan in the distance, surrounded by fallen birds and fussing over what looked to be a Taillow and Wingull respectively.

    "But for now, let's go show off. And tomorrow..." Astra chuckled, a vindictive grin crossing her face. "We'll show those pests at the gym who the air really belongs to!"





    Swablu beat her wings, with swirling trails of wind coalescing behind her. Across the arena, a small, teardrop-shaped pokemon with diamond wings and two large eye-like fronds flitted about frantically, its body marked with numerous small bruises.

    "It can't end like this!" a young boy cried, fearfully watching his pokemon. "C'mon Masquerain, we can turn it around! Use Bubble Beam!"

    Masquerain stalled in mid-air, drawing back its diamond-like wings and then thrusting them forth, a speedy barrage of concussive bubbles shooting forth.

    On her side of the arena, Astra's eyes narrowed in satisfied triumph, her song rising towards one final crescendo.

    Dash-peck.

    Swablu trilled and dove into the attack, her Tailwind boosting her speed. She dipped through and around the bubbles, her winds brushing the booming spheres away like so much froth. Descending upon Masquerain, she drove her beak into the flying bug's fragile torso.

    Masquerain fell. A dozen spectators roared in approval.

    "With a prompt pecking, our sunlit Swablu has massacred Masquerain!" The announcer cried out. "Once again, our velvet violinist takes the victory! What a show!"

    Astra set her violin down and raised a hand, cooing to Swablu as the bird alighted on her arm.

    "Aw, good girl!" she said, stroking Swablu's soft wings. "Yes you are, yes you are! Good job!"

    Swablu trilled, tired but joyful. Astra grinned. Then the wind picked up, and Astra heard a shout from another arena nearby.

    "Taillow!" May yelled, "cut him from the sky!"

    Astra looked over to see May's Taillow glow with Flying energy, before diving down at the opposing Wingull, wings shining. The sea-bird screeched in pain as Taillow collided with them, crushing their wings with his own, then Wingull fell to the ground, unconscious.

    "Hell yes!" May cheered, raising an arm in victory as another announcer hyped up her victory.

    Across from her, Brendan pulled a hand down his face and sighed, recalling his Wingull. Astra walked over and patted him on the shoulder.

    "You'll get a win someday," she consoled. Brendan gave her a little shrug.

    "Maybe," he said. "I've been more focused on research than training right now, so I'm not surprised. I only meant to spectate until she dragged me out there anyway." He looked at May, who was stroking the back of Taillow's head and rapid-firing praise. Brendan huffed, the corner of his mouth twitching up. "It's kinda incredible how quickly you two got a handle on your new pokemon. We only got these guys yesterday afternoon."

    "Oh it's nothing, really," Astra said with a laugh. "Swablu is a real sweetie, and she's a quick learner!"

    It also helped that she was literally feeding Swablu psychic visions of what she wanted Swablu to do. Just a bit. If anything, May was the really amazing one; the other girl didn't have a shortcut like she did. That was pure talent.

    "Swa!" Swablu chirped. Brendan looked at her and smiled.

    "I suppose she is, isn't she?" he said, proffering a finger to the bird. Swablu nudged into it, and Brendan obligingly began to stroke her feathers. "I still can't believe you found a solar Swablu. I looked it up and the odds for yellow feathers are something like one in a hundred thousand; people in ancient times took their appearance as a sign of good fortune from the sun itself."

    "Well, I certainly feel lucky!" Astra cheered. A loud gurgle rumbled out from her midsection. "And hungry," she added, flushing slightly. "Wanna wrap it up here?"

    "Might as well. We have a big day tomorrow, and if I recall, you two were out of food."

    "Yeah." Astra nodded and returned Swablu to her pokeball. "It's still early enough to pick up some supplies on our way to the hotel."

    "More than you planned yesterday, I take it," Brendan said, looking amused. He shook his head. "You know, maybe you're having such a hard time with supplies because you've been catching so many pokemon. It's barely been a week and both of you have five teammates already; that's ten mouths to feed!"

    Astra shrugged. "I dunno what to tell you. Half of my team basically walked up to me and asked to be caught, and May had to get a second water type for—well, a few reasons. Hey," she said, eyes narrowed, "don't you have five too? Hypocrite!"

    Brendan looked at her and half-nodded, lips upturned. "Well, you got me there. Though, my situation isn't exactly ordinary either. I'm training to be a researcher, and I've got some funding from Dad's lab to help me through." He pulled out his pokeballs, gazing at them fondly. "Marshtomp was my starter, I found Slugma very far from her natural habitat and freezing to death, Shroomish was simply a genetic oddity that merited a closer look, and, well, you two were there for Whismur."

    "I take it having this many isn't normal?" Astra guessed. Most of her opponents had three or fewer pokemon, and even Roxanne only used Nosepass and two Geodude in their fight.

    "Average trainers have two or three pokemon by the time they get their second badge," Brendan answered. "Usually they only get up to and over six once they're near the end of the gym tour, which is when people get really serious about training as a lifestyle. Every pokemon you have is another time slot filled with training, another few hours of enrichment, and another load on your finances." He looked at Astra, face serious. "Can you honestly say you'll be able to treat all five of your pokemon equally? Will you be able to give each one the attention they deserve? What if you catch more?"

    Astra blinked, taken aback by the sudden weight of the conversation. She looked down, staring at her own pokeballs thoughtfully. It was true that she hadn't had much time to train her newer partners, but it had only been a week—one filled with utter nonsense at that! She'd have more opportunities once they were on the move again, surely.

    On the other hand, dividing her attention in so many ways would lessen their individual progress, wouldn't it? She'd only just gotten Nincada and Swablu, would she have to focus on them more? Would Grovyle resent being ignored? Wouldn't Marill get frustrated at being sidelined? Astra still hadn't found her that TM she'd been promised.

    Astra sighed. "I don't know," she admitted. "Maybe there will be a point where I catch too many Pokemon and overwhelm myself, but until then I'll just have to do my best. If people like Steven can manage to handle all of their Pokemon fairly, then so can I." She met Brendan's gaze and smiled. "Even if treating them fairly is hard, or time consuming, or expensive, I'll just have to do it anyway. Not just for my Pokemon, but for me, too. I can't do anything less."

    Brendan considered her words, then nodded, returning her smile. "Well said. Say what you want about our Champion, he didn't get where he is by giving up. Still," Brendan said, sighing. "Maybe hold off on throwing pokeballs at every pokemon you meet. Life in storage is no way for a pokemon to live, and actively taking care of so many is a nightmare on your finances until you get higher-paying opportunities. Though the food cost hits a soft plateau once you start buying in bulk."

    "Did I hear someone say food?" May asked, having strolled over from Nurse Joy's med-station. "Good timing, I'm starving." She stretched, raising her arms high over her head before dropping them with a pleased groan. "Tomorrow's Thursday, yeah? Guess that means we're finally ditching Rustboro. Fuck, it feels like I've been here for like, three years."

    Astra tilted her head. That was...oddly specific, but she could understand it. A lot had happened over the past week. "Yeah, the room expires after tonight. Once we get the package and payment from Devon we can travel down to Mr. Briney's. I'm kinda excited to get my hands on that PokeNav."

    "Forget the toys, I'm more excited about getting a fat stack of cash!" May said, rubbing her hands together. "Easy money!"

    Brendan frowned, peering at May. "Wait, if you were getting money from Devon, what was all this battling about?"

    "I still needed to feed my guys today, man." May said, rolling her eyes. "Nevermind that, what are you getting there?"

    He blinked, then bit his lip in thought. "I don't think I ever asked for anything, actually," he said. "Do you think they'd let us take a tour? I've heard they're working on some really cool new tech."

    "That sounds interesting," Astra agreed. A close look at the freshest human devices? Yes please! "Maybe we can go together!"

    "Might as well," May said.

    Brendan nodded, smiling. "Alright then. Tomorrow, we set a course for Devon and then get out of here! All in favor?"

    "Aye!" Astra and May cheered.


    2/3

    The hour of Swablu is upon us. Lookit that funky yellow birb, is adorable.

    Chapter 30! Didn't expect—or want—to still be in Rustboro, but oh well. It's a nice number.

    Hopefully the last bit won't take too much longer than this bit—ahaha. ahahahah. haha. hah. Oh lord it's gonna be a hot mess.

    Anyway, yadda yadda, leave a comment with some words! Love that shit. Hell, maybe tell someone else about Hyphen too.

    See ya soon.
     
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    Poke-speech (and its absence.)
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    • It's been a constant through the whole fic that Astra doesn't have access to 'pokespeak', and in fact her whole village exclusively speaks 'human'. Their actual non-telepathy speech is still limited to their species name, but they also sort of vaguely culturally view using their physical voice like a hyperbolic stereotypical victorian woman showing someone their elbow or something. (You get the idea, please don't expouse on the real specifics of victorian cultural norms.) It's something you only really do when you're emotionally bonding with really close family and friends. Or get drunk on berry moonshine, we don't judge.

    Also, it is explicitly noted in Backslash that when a regular 'Anime' pokemon hears Hyphen pokemon, Hyphen pokespeech comes across as broken, simplistic, and garbled in many ways. This is because they don't actually have poke-speech at all. If they did, Astra would've been able to still get more than concepts with telepathy. They still 'talk', as seen in the ill-advised Chapter 27 (Note to self: never again), but it is just (again, hyperbolically) sort of like caveman speech.

    It is mentioned in 20 by Roxanne that there have been several cases of Pokemon being trained to speak 'human'. This is, reportedly, very time consuming, and in the few cases of the pokemon reproducing, has only had very marginal improvements on the offspring being able to learn the same skill. Attempts to proceed past this point have presumably either failed to garner funding and time, have not yet begun, or just completely stalled out. Some have begun tackling the problem from alternate directions, trying to build machines that can translate for them and such.

    In the distant past, before humanity had cities, the Ancestor learned Human from a boys caring mother. In the very slightly less but still very distant past, the Ancestor began teaching a giant group of her kind how to speak human, and did not stop for thousands of years.

    I hope this clarifies the situation.
     
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    • Hyphen 31 - Devon
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    • Hyphen 31

    Devon


    Astra and May got up first thing in the morning—much to May's chagrin—and packed up everything they owned back into their packs. After a quick breakfast in the lobby, they officially handed in the keys to the room to the front desk and bid the hotel a fond farewell. Well, Astra did at least; she was unused to 'temporary' lodging and had grown fond of the soft bed, warm showers, and delicious breakfasts the building provided.

    The duo met up with Brendan outside a small bakery where he'd gotten his own breakfast, and the trio made their way toward the Devon headquarters, filling the air with easy chatter along the way.

    Eventually, they arrived at the gleaming towers and were ushered in to meet President Stone. Mr. Stone greeted them warmly as they entered his office, standing from his desk and walking to meet them halfway in.

    "Ah, good, there you are. Ready to start the job?" he asked.

    "Setting out today," Brendan confirmed.

    Mr. Stone nodded. He looked at them, his eyes staring into each of theirs in turn, then sighed. "What a detestable situation. While the risks should be minimal, it is still regrettable that Aqua has made this whole arrangement necessary."

    "Hey, it's no big deal," May shrugged, grinning. "If those pricks wanna pick a fight, we're more than enough to take care of it."

    "Picking a fight with you is the last thing I want them to be doing." Mr. Stone chided, frowning. "This job exists only because you three have both proven you can handle yourselves and are too fresh to be on anybody's radar. You should only be facing those miscreants if something has gone terribly wrong."

    "Don't worry," Astra said, giving Mr. Stone a reassuring grin. "We'll finish the job quicker than they can blink!"

    Or, at least, Astra hoped so. Delivering a letter to Steven would be stressful enough as it was, she didn't need that Aqua flunky harassing them on the way there. What happened to that guy anyway?

    "By the way," Astra said, "did anyone ever catch that guy that stole the briefcase?"

    Mr. Stone shook his head. "I've not received any updates on the situation, and Aqua is still claiming innocence." He paused, glancing at a clock. "Mmm, we'd best get on with it. To reiterate, your mission is to deliver a letter to my son Steven Stone in Dewford and a parcel containing documentation and machine parts to Captain Stern in Slateport. Do you understand the task as I've explained it?"

    "Yes, sir!" "Got it." "Yep!"

    Mr. Stone nodded. "Excellent, excellent. You'll be picking up the packages on your way out of the building. Protect them as best you can, and deliver them as quickly as you are capable. Keep them secret, keep them safe.

    "As for your compensation," he continued, turning to Astra. "I've told the boys in production to prepare one of our prototype PokeNavs for field testing. Should be just as capable as the full version will be, but we've included a feature for feedback and error reporting. Please let us know if you have any issues."

    "I'll make good use of it!" Astra promised. "I'd be pretty dumb to ask for a better map then get lost anyway."

    Mr. Stone chuckled. "Well, hopefully you'll use more than the map." He turned to May. "I recall that you wanted a standard monetary payment. I've taken the liberty to write out a check for a third of the payment, and you'll receive the rest once the delivery is completed."

    Mr. Stone handed May a small slip of paper. Her eyes widened a fraction as she read it, and Astra looked over to see quite a few zeroes. She stared. That made what they'd earned in the battle event look like pocket change!

    "Y-yeah," May said, blinking. "That's fine. We won't let it out of our sight."

    Mr. Stone nodded, then turned to Brendan, who was also staring at the check. He quirked an eyebrow. "Mr. Birch," he said, causing Brendan to start. "I didn't receive a request from you yesterday, but can I assume you would also be interested in monetary compensation?"

    "Uh," he said, glancing at May. "Well, I can't say I'm not tempted, but I actually came here wondering if I could get a tour. I've heard a lot of rumors about some fascinating tech your company is developing and I wanted to, well, check it out."

    He shrugged. Mr. Stone looked amused.

    "Well I can certainly arrange that. The boys in R&D certainly love to talk my ears off about whatever pet project they have brewing whenever I stop by, I'm sure they'd appreciate someone who's interested beyond the business applications. I'll even extend you the opportunity to help beta-test any that catch your interest, just like Miss Astra and her PokeNav."

    "I dunno, man," May said, nudging Brendan. She held up the check. "Now that I got this, just taking a look around doesn't seem very reward-y."

    "I can assure you that it would cost quite a bit more than you are receiving to lay hands on our tech ahead of the rest of the world," Mr. Stone informed her. "To use Miss Astra as an example again, even discounting the price of the PokeNav, early access is a substantial advantage on its own."

    Brendan considered his words for a moment, then nodded. "I'll take the tour, sir."

    May hummed disapprovingly. "You sure?"

    "I'm not hurting for money," Brendan explained. "I mean, more would be nice, but I can get that a lot of ways. An opportunity like this doesn't come around just by asking."

    "I'd rather have the PokeNav than the cash," Astra agreed. "We couldn't buy our way out of that forest we got lost in."

    May rolled her eyes, but let the subject drop. Mr. Stone smiled. "Excellent. I'll have one of the boys show you around. Lily will see you back to the waiting room. Thank you for your service, and I look forward to your success."


    One of 'the boys' turned out to be a tired-looking bespectacled man wearing a glossy white coat named Arin. He'd greeted them with a polite-yet-distant smile, which rapidly switched into confusion and surprise when he'd actually looked at them.

    "I thought one of the boss's investors was poking around again," he chatted, his smile looking much more genuine as he led Astra, May, and Brendan through the building. "They're usually focused on how much money our developments can net them, so it's rare anyone gets to talk about their project with people who don't already know."

    Brendan chuckled. "Considering we chose this over money, I doubt you'll have the same problem with us!"

    "I'll bet!" Arin grinned, walking the group towards a double door. He poked his head inside. "Look alive, everybody! We've got guests!" he shouted, then looked back and motioned for them to follow.

    The lab was a fairly spacious place, full of computer-laden tables, strange machines, and large white surfaces covered with scribbles and diagrams. They were roughly divided into a half-dozen zones, with each one occupied by two or three humans dressed similarly to Arin. They all looked up at his announcement; most gave Arin a minor note of acknowledgement, but a few stared at the trio curiously before returning to their work.

    "Wow!" Astra said, head turning every-which-way at the vast array of intriguing sights. "You've got a lot in here! Oh," she exclaimed, spotting something on a nearby whiteboard. It looked like a drawing of a pokeball, but as if someone had separated every component into layers. "Is that how a pokeball fits together?"

    "Sure is!" Arin chuckled. "We've made quite a few new types recently, and our boy Jeb is the one who thought 'em up! Wanna go see what he's working on?"

    Astra and Brendan nodded eagerly, though May just shrugged. They moved over to the station, and Arin knocked on a waist-high wall that divided it from the others.

    "Hey Jeb!" he greeted, smirking. "How're your balls coming along?"

    Jeb, a hefty brown-haired man in glasses, looked up sharply at Arin, mouth open—before pausing at May's snicker. He eyed them warily, before turning a frown on Arin. "They're fine," he grumbled. "Just having problems integrating the full restore on the next one."

    "Full restore?" May asked, raising an eyebrow. "Isn't that like, a cure-all? What are you doing with that?"

    "Oh, my next project is a pokeball that heals whatever you capture to full health," he explained. "Most pokemon usually need a bit of healing up before a trainer can use them, so I figured that having a ball that could provide that aid instantly would be handy."

    "Oh, that would have been really useful, actually!" Astra said, nodding. "We got in a dangerous fight recently, and I had just captured a Nincada before that. If he'd been ready to battle right after I caught him it could have gone much smoother."

    "Not sure Nincada could have done much against that Exploud, Astra," May remarked dryly.

    "Not much isn't nothing!" Astra argued. "Either way, that sounds like a really nice feature, Jeb. Have you made any other pokeballs?"

    "Oh, Jeb here's made quite a few!" Arin said, grinning. "You know Timer and Repeat balls? All Jeb."

    "Oh, I've heard of those," Brendan said. "Repeat balls catch pokemon you've caught before more easily and timer balls work better the longer a fight lasts, right?"

    "Some of my best work!" Jeb said, proudly. "Took me forever to figure out how to get a pokeball to download and share construct data like that. Both of 'em create an environment suited to the pokemon you're fighting, the difference is Repeat balls connect to your other Repeat balls and Timer balls connect to a central database. Downloading all that data takes time, so that's why stalling makes timer balls work better."

    "Neat!" Astra said. "Say, how do pokeballs work, anyway? I always wondered."

    Jeb considered Astra for a moment. "How much do you know about organic-data conversion?"

    "Nothing at all."

    "It's magic."

    May and Brendan snorted, then coughed into their fists to hide their laughter. Astra glared. "Hey!"

    Arin shook his head, an amused smile playing across his face. "Good stuff, good stuff. Anyway, we'll let you get back to it. Now, who should we visit next—ah, Becky! How's that Dreamscape project coming along?"

    Becky's project was some sort of device that let you view someone's dreams in real-time. Astra listened to the woman complain about the innumerable roadblocks she'd run into with half an ear, distracted by the sudden feeling of void from somewhere in the room. She glanced about, trying to pinpoint the source, when she spotted another woman working at some sort of machine box radiating black light.

    Astra stared at her. Breaking away from the group, she glided over to the woman's zone. Noticing Astra's approach, the woman looked up and blinked at her. Astra looked from her to the box. It felt...like how a Poochyena would.

    Dark.

    "What is that?" Astra asked, gaze fixated on the strange machine part.

    "O-oh...um...." the woman stuttered, shrinking in on herself slightly. "R-right, the tour. Um. Well, I—Devon, we've been trying to apply various pokemon energy types to...to machines, and such, to make them work better. A-a few months ago we helped build the...the rocket? In Mossdeep?"

    Astra's gaze snapped to the woman. "You made the rocket?" she asked, awed. "The one that went to the moon?"

    The woman flushed. "I-I mean, it wasn't just me, but, uh, y-yeah. I—we, um, made the metal more permeable to Psychic and Flying energy. So the pokemon on board could, you know, lift it easier, and it would cut through the air better."

    "Woah," Astra said, eyes wide. There were pokemon on the rocket that lifted it? "That's incredible. But, what does that do?" she asked, returning her attention to the box.

    The woman shifted in her seat. "Um. It's...kind of the opposite of what I did for the-the rocket. It's a module that's supposed to mimic Dark-type pokemon's ability to, uh, nullify psychic abilities targeted at whatever it's inserted into, so nobody can, um, make their pokemon teleport it away? Or throw it? Honestly Courtney, would an explanation kill you?" she muttered under her breath. She hesitated. "I-I guess it's for security reasons—"

    "Oh hey Mami!" Arin greeted from behind Astra, making them both jump. "Still working on that commission for your friend?"

    The newly named Mami ducked her head and nodded. Arin chuckled.

    "Well, keep up the good work. Sorry for the bother. C'mon," he said, addressing Astra. "Don't go wandering around like that, Mami's—well, she's more of an inventor than a talker."

    "Sorry," Astra said, glancing back at the Dark box. "It...just looked interesting."

    "Dreamscape not doing it for you? Well, alright. Maybe this next one will be up your alley. Hey Dave! Tell us about the fossil machine!"

    Despite Dave's best efforts, his ramblings about some machine that let him recreate old pokemon from rocks didn't really hold Astra's attention, though May and Brendan seemed into it. Astra's thoughts and eyes kept drifting back toward Mami and her invention.

    They had a machine that could copy Dark types. They had a device that let them completely nullify psychic abilities. That...if that became widespread, they'd be able to completely flatten the village! Put one of them on those buzzsaw vehicles she'd seen cutting into the forest and it would be even more literal. If it could extend the effect onto a human or even a pokemon...

    That woman was crafting Astra's worst nightmare and didn't even know it.

    There was a brief impulse to smash it, to pulverize the abhorrent creation into dust. But it wouldn't help, would it? The researcher—Mami?—had already made the one, and she'd probably recorded how she'd done it somewhere. Breaking it would only get Astra in trouble. Was there anything she could do?

    Astra tore her gaze away, rubbing her fingers against her eyes. She'd just have to make sure it never became a problem. Beat the champion. Become the champion. Save her village. No Dark machines necessary.

    Simple, right?

    The motion caught May's attention, and she looked at Astra curiously. She frowned. "You okay?"

    No. "Yeah," Astra replied, giving her a tired smile. "Just...got a little headache."

    May's eyes narrowed. "Not gonna collapse again are you?" she asked, shuffling a step closer.

    Astra scratched her cheek, laughing slightly. "No, nothing like that," she said, waving her off. She turned back to see what project they were looking at now.

    "—So if you find any intact fossils, consider bringing them to me," Dave said. "With my machine perfected, I'll be able to restore these ancient pokemon to life!"

    Astra blinked. Why did he need them to find material? "Aren't there a ton of fossils in Roxanne's gym?" she questioned, confused.

    Dave scoffed. "Most of those are either unusable or the owner won't let me try. Even after I gave her that Aerodactyl of hers. Sure it's sterile and the rest of my other outputs were stillborn, but I fixed those issues! Nobody trusts me anymore," he sighed.

    "Well, Mr. Stone did say I could beta-test some things," Brendan mused. "If we ever find a fossil, we can come back and give it a try."

    "Please consider it," Dave pleaded. "One proven success would do so much for me."

    "All right man, take it easy," Arin said, patting him on the shoulder. "You'll get a break eventually."

    They moved on, Astra's thoughts inexorably drawn back to that feeling of emptiness in that corner of the room. They came up to another man's workplace. He was fiddling with a strange-looking metal headcap that had all sorts of wires coming from the scalp. He looked up at them and beamed.

    "Oh, you're the ones looking around? Hi, I'm Darren," he said, holding out a hand. Brendan shook it. "Are you here to see what I'm working on?

    "Sure," May said, leaning against a wall. "Whatcha got?"

    "I'm actually working on a device that will let us speak with pokemon more easily," the man said, beaming.

    Astra's head snapped up.

    "With my research, I believe that someday we'll be able to talk as easily as we are right now." the man continued. "Once I get my machine working, people and Pokemon will finally, truly be able to communicate!"

    "Why?" Astra blurted. It may have been uncharitable, but the hollow itch in the corner of the room cast a dark light on her thoughts. One employee was already developing something that could cause her home havoc, why wouldn't another? Why did he need to talk to pokemon? Did he expect to extract some sort of secret from them? Was it all in service of ordering them around better?

    Darren blinked at her, considering the question. "Because they're our friends?" he asked, confused. "They're such an integral part of all our lives, but sometimes it seems like we still barely know anything about them." He smiled, looking at the helmet in his hands wistfully. "How much could we learn if we could talk to even a Zigzagoon? I wonder what stories a Taillow that's traveled the whole of Hoenn could tell. I want to tell my own pokemon how much they mean to me, and know that they understand."

    He looked at Astra and grinned. "I just think the world would be a better place, if everyone—human and pokemon alike—could sit down and understand each other. That's all."

    He...really believed that, didn't he? Astra could feel it: sincerity, bathing his words like sunlight. It was...soothing.

    "Dunno about all that cheesy shit," May murmured, "but being able to talk to Tentacool would've really saved me some time back on 104."

    Brendan nodded along, smiling. "That's a really nice dream," he said. "I hope it works out."

    "Ah, thanks!" Darren said, scratching his head with a dust of red on his cheeks. He slumped, sighing. "Unfortunately, my experiments aren't showing much promise so far. I'm not sure I'll ever see my goal through."

    Astra felt her lips twitch upwards. "Don't worry," she said, patting him on the shoulder. She gave him a big, slightly cheeky grin.

    "I have a feeling that you're closer than you think."


    After touring a few more projects, the trio were finally on their way. The Devon parcel and the letter were entrusted to Astra's bags by virtue of her having the most empty space. Alongside the deliveries, she was handed a freshly made PokeNav, which was a beige hand-sized, half-oval-shaped device with a blue sphere in the middle. The trio checked their bags one last time—now fully restocked with food, toiletries, and other essentials—and hovered at the entrance to Route 104. They had at least a day's walking before they reached Mr. Briney's home—and his personal pier—on the other side of the forest, but they took one last moment to look north back at Rustboro from the hilltop.

    "One badge down, seven to go," May mused. "Fucking hell of a week."

    "Exciting days," Brendan agreed. "That explosion, the cave, the job...I wasn't expecting any of this when I left Littleroot."

    Astra gazed at the distant skyline. It was almost surreal how much had changed in seven short days. In the distance she saw the rocky walls of the Gym, where she'd prevailed over Roxanne for her first badge and had evolved. To the left soared the shining Devon Towers, where she'd gone on a frightful chase culminating in a deadly battle in Rusturf Tunnel. To the right, outside of the city—she faltered, grin fading. Shot through the sky was that awful pillar of bruise-yellow, an everlasting scar proclaiming her negligence. But at the other end of the horizon, she could just make out the tip of the lighthouse they'd visited, and the memory of friendships forged.

    She'd come as a Ralts, and now left a Kirlia.

    Astra breathed in the cool, clean air, took in the vista one last time, and smiled. "Well," she said, "it's been an adventure. Goodbye, Rustboro. Hopefully the rest of our journey won't be as chaotic as it was here."

    They left the city, and headed into the forest. Astra smiled as the woods enveloped them once more. It was nice to be back under a canopy again.

    Still, something was niggling at her, as if she'd forgotten something. Astra puzzled at the feeling for a few minutes. She'd gotten all her supplies—well, she still hadn't gotten a handle for her knife, but that didn't feel like the thing she was forgetting—she had all her pokeballs, her team was well fed and at peak health...

    Hrm. This was irritating. Maybe if she asked—

    "Oh right!" Astra exclaimed, brightening. She couldn't believe it'd slipped her mind for so long. She turned to Brendan. "Hey, I actually had a question for you."

    Brendan quirked an eyebrow. "Me specifically? Shoot."

    "Yeah, May said she couldn't tell me," Astra explained. May looked confused for a moment before her eyes widened.

    "Astra no—!"

    "Can you explain what puberty is?" Astra asked, blithely. "May was pretty insistent that you were the one to ask."

    Silence. Brendan stared through Astra. His mouth opened a crack, and a low, crackly gurgle began to emanate from within. His now-twitchy gaze turned toward May, and Astra could almost feel the creak as his head jittered around.

    "May," he said, hollowly.

    May looked at him, face blank. Very slowly, she brought her arm up and looked at her bare wrist. "Oh wow look at the time, I better—NOT IT!"

    She took off at a dead sprint. Brendan hopped on his bike and pedaled after her, roaring.

    "Get your ass back here or so help me—!"

    Astra stared after them, bemused. In the distance, Brendan caught up and full-on crashed into May, sending them both sprawling.

    Was...was it that bad of a question?


    An hour later and a stilted lecture delivered by an awkward Brendan and a sullen, extremely uncomfortable May, she discovered that it really, really was. There had been answers. There had been explanations. Much to both Astra and May's vocal protests, Brendan had drawn a diagram, which May had then very enthusiastically burnt to ash.

    Never before had Astra been more grateful to not be a human. Evolution was a much more sensible way to go about things, thank you very much.

    But there was one upside, at least.

    "You lied!" Astra crowed, pointing a finger at May victoriously. "People do have eggs!"

    May closed her eyes and dropped her head into her hands. "Only you, Astra," she sighed. "Only you."

    Astra just grinned.

    This is the shortest chapter since chapter eight. Weirdly, it also took the most time of the cut up chapters to come out. I blame my wonderful editor.

    Hope you enjoyed, tell me what you think, yadda yadda.

    In 32, we'll be strolling through the woods again and shipping out with Mr. Briney!

    But before that, Backslash 5? and between those two... a moderate to vast overhaul of chapters 1-10!?

    Yeah the beginning chapters of this story were never actually put before a proofreader. They suck ass. Really, go back and look. I have Astra 'say' her thoughts like 'Oh boy I sure hope I don't get found out!'. In my google doc I basically had to completely re-write chapter 5 to deal with problems of scale and logistics and I look upon the rest with dread.

    Should be fun.

    Anyway, as per usual my man Dex has made another art quest, this time Dungeon Core style! Check it out: Marbled Hearts.

    See ya'll in the fall lmao.
     
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    • Backslash 7 (Beta 5) - Tear-out (Hyphen / A Backwards Grin)
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    • I'm not entirely sure how to feel about this extra-long chapter of Backslash. There's things I definitely feel could be better, but... well, we'll see how it goes.


    Backslash (Beta) - 5 (Hyphen/A Backwards Grin)

    Tear-out


    Mawile

    I don't know exactly how long we run for before the flood of maddening, irrational terror wears off. I just know that by the time we stop, we've somehow ended up next to a familiar river, though it's at least not any part of it that I immediately recognize.

    Thankfully, the Stantler were apparently satisfied with just driving us back into the forest rather than actively hunting us down, meaning that when Astra and I finally chance looking back the way we came, there's no herd of terror deer in sight. Sighing in relief, the two of us near-simultaneously collapse to our knees.

    "What in the world was that?!" Astra cries, her telepathic voice unaffected by the exertion she just put herself through.

    "I think... I just got a taste... of my own medicine." I reply, barely able to speak past my own gasping breaths. "Or rather, we did... several times over... all at once."

    It is no longer at all a wonder to me that other Pokemon have been running away from me for the past week. Even just a fraction of that aura would probably have had me scared to get anywhere near, regardless of how relatively harmless Stantler physically appear to be... though, since those jackass deer are evidently most of the reason I'm even still in this stupid forest, it turns out appearances are a pretty terrible metric to work off of anyways. Suppose I should have known that already, given that Mawile are all but the literal avatar of the idea that appearances can be deceiving, but that doesn't make it any more pleasant a revelation.

    The two of us recuperate in silence for a minute or two, just getting our breath back. Absurdly, the thought that primarily dominates my mind while doing so is that I didn't know I could still move that fast; in spite of being less than half her height, I actually managed to keep up with Astra decently well. Although, whether that says more about my physical capabilities or hers, I'm not entirely sure.

    "Hey," I say, finally starting to get my breathing under control again, "I'm, uh... sorry about, you know... getting trapped in an illusion and almost attacking you."

    It seriously felt like I was in a living nightmare for a bit there. Stupid, thrice-damned, absolutely Psychic-type deer.

    "I forgive you." Astra replies, more easily than I'd expected. "It wasn't your fault. Let's... try to avoid repeating that in the future though."

    Yeah, no kidding.

    I stand back up, with Astra doing the same a few seconds later.

    "Okay..." I say slowly, beginning to pace back and forth along the riverbank. "So, clearly getting out of here isn't going to be as simple as we hoped. I think we can agree that trying to just force our way through the Stantler blockade is a bad idea, right?"

    Astra visibly shudders. "Definitely. I never want to feel like that again."

    "Same." I agree, nodding my head. "In that case though, we're either going to have to be clever about this, or find an alternative route."

    Not that any such route has worked for me in the past, but we have to try.

    "Hmm... you mentioned seeing rock walls in the distance earlier, right?" I ask. "Think we could get on top of one of them?"

    Seeing as they're deer, not goats, I doubt that the Stantler would be able to follow us upwards all that easily, and with a high enough vantage point, maybe we could-

    "I don't think so." Astra replies, interrupting my still-forming thought process. "From what I saw, they looked way too steep to climb. They were really more like cliffs, honestly."

    I stop in my tracks and stare up at her. "Wha- cliffs?"

    That's a bit of a step up from the kind of rock formations I thought she was describing earlier. Are we operating off the same definition of what a cliff is? Because if so, then even accounting for my minuscule height, the ever-present cover of the treetops, and my apparently being repeatedly given the illusory runaround, how the hell did I never even so much as glimpse something as large as-

    My eyes widen in sudden realization. Wait a second. Cliffs... Treecko's bizarre word salad statement of "Canyon trees in the"... if that wasn't actually just a weird translation failure, was he trying to say that this forest is at the bottom of a literal canyon?! In which case, "way through isn't one more"... that must have actually meant-

    "Only one way out." I mutter under my breath.

    Shit.

    "Um, is everything okay?" Astra asks, concerned. "It feels like you just found out you got picked for compost duty."

    I sigh as I turn to face her. "I'm fine. It's just that I think I finally figured out what Treecko was trying to say-"

    Wait, oh no, Treecko!

    "You did get Treecko out of there, right?!" I ask, not a little frantically.

    "Wha- oh! Yes, he's safe." Astra quickly assures me. "He got hypnotized by the Stantler too, so I recalled him. That was before I snapped you out of that illusion though, so I guess you didn't see."

    I let out another sigh, this one of relief. "Right, should have figured... sorry, panicked for a second there."

    "That's a thought though." Astra suddenly says, raising a hand to her chin. "This forest is home to a lot of other Pokemon, right? And you said every Pokemon can- that they're intelligent like us, right? Surely they can't be okay with what the Stantler are doing. Maybe we could ask for their help?"

    I consider it for a moment, then shake my head.

    "That could maybe work, if not for the fact that I'm involved." I say. "I don't know if I exactly have a 'reputation', since no one would even talk to me, but based on why that apparently was, I'd hazard a guess that I'm not exactly well liked around here. Especially given I've... you know, kind of had to find what food I can, where I can."

    Astra shifts and glances away at the reminder of how we met all of a couple hours ago, and I wince. Really wish this didn't keep coming up.

    "Besides," I continue, pushing through the awkwardness. "I'm pretty sure the Stantler are basically just doing the same thing I've unknowingly been doing for the past week, and most of the time that just resulted in any other Pokemon I tried to talk to fleeing on sight. So even if any of them agreed to help, I doubt they'd withstand that fear aura much better than we did."

    "Right..." Astra frowns, crossing her arms. "Well, maybe we can sneak past the Stantler then? I can sense nearby minds even without seeing them, so we might be able to just avoid them entirely if we're careful."

    "I'd agree, if we weren't apparently in a canyon." I immediately reply. "If there's only one way out of here, they aren't going to need to cover much ground to completely wall us off."

    Astra blinks. "What?"

    I relate my new understanding of Treecko's earlier "explanation" to her, followed by the conclusion I've come to as a result.

    "...oh." Astra mumbles. "Well then... hmm..."

    She frowns, her brow slanting downward in apparent frustration — not that she's the only one who's frustrated right now. Come on, think! We're being barricaded in this forest by a bunch of dirtbag deer who might not actually be all that strong, but can cast highly realistic illusions on anyone who looks at them, and make themselves feel like the most terrifying thing on the planet when grouped together. We're also apparently surrounded by cliff walls on at least two, probably three sides, so we can't just pick a different direction and run that way as fast as possible. Our resources consist of Astra and all her various psychic powers, me with all my significantly less impressive non-psychic powers, a Treecko, a Marill, and a Slakoth of mostly unknown ability, everything in Astra's bag, and whatever she has in that giant case she carries around...

    I pause.

    "Er, Astra? What is that thing on your back, anyways?"

    I meant to ask about it earlier, but it slipped my mind. Admittedly, right now probably isn't the best time to be remedying that, but if it's something that could help us, I'd feel stupid for not doing so.

    "Oh, this?" Astra replies, glancing over her shoulder at the oddly-shaped case. "It's my violin."

    That throws me a little.

    "Your- what?" I ask, unable to stop myself from inquiring further. "Why do you have a violin?"

    "Because I enjoy playing it?" Astra says simply. "Also, I use targeted telepathy to direct my Pokemon in battle, but I guess not sounding like you're giving them any instruction is considered weird? So to avoid questions, I've been playing it during trainer battles, and just telling anyone who asks that I'm commanding my Pokemon through the music."

    "...huh." I say, tilting my head slightly to the side. "Okay. Neat."

    Part of me also wants to ask how she managed to both purchase and learn to play an instrument as complicated as a violin, especially given that she has even less fingers than I do right now, but in the interest of getting back on topic, I manage to refrain this time.

    "Setting that aside, what about the stuff in your bag?" I continue, examining the pack speculatively. Is… is it made of grass? "Anything you think might be useful?"

    Astra shakes her head. "Not for this situation. I have a couple of Poke Balls, a TM for Rock Tomb, a jar of Leppa Berries, and a few other general use items, but nothing I imagine could really help us right now."

    She pauses.

    "Except..."

    "Except what?" I prompt when she doesn't immediately continue.

    Rather than answer verbally, Astra kneels down in the grass and opens up the bag in question. After rummaging around in it for a couple of seconds, she slowly, carefully pulls out a large wooden box with a rather elaborate latch on one side.

    I shiver, suddenly a bit cold for some reason.

    "My Grandpa gave me this the night before I set out." Astra explains. "He said to only use it in a major emergency, and... well, if this doesn't qualify, I don't know what would."

    She unlatches and opens the box, revealing a bundle of cloth draped over something spherical, about half a foot in diameter. I find myself drawing back from it slightly, unnerved for a reason I can't explain, and a little unsure if my eyes are playing tricks on me. Something about the light surrounding the cloth seems wrong, looking inexplicably darker than it should be, but why-

    Astra removes the cloth, and my eyes go wide.

    "What the hell is that?" I say without thinking, flinching back from the black-and-purple sphere that's now been exposed to the light of day.

    "No one is really sure." Astra rather cryptically replies. "The Ancestor didn't leave behind any sort of explanation."

    "...who?"

    "Oh- the Gardevoir who founded my village." Astra elaborates. "Apparently she was really, really strong, and lived with humanity a long time ago, but then was... crippled, somehow, and decided to gather everyone of our kind in Hoenn together and hide us away. According to Grandpa, one day she just... vanished, and this orb was all she left behind. I've never used it before, but from what Grandpa told me, it can transfer a huge amount of energy to whoever holds it, giving them a major boost in power... maybe enough to get us past those Stantler?"

    Taking a moment to process that explanation, I nervously glance back at the orb again. If I was judging it by looks alone, I'd be tempted to think it's some sort of oversized mega stone, especially given the prominent, albeit alarmingly veiny-looking DNA helix at its center. However... given the way Astra just described it, the region she apparently came here from, and its rather concerning "aesthetic", I'm actually more inclined to compare it to the Red and Blue Orbs, AKA Hoenn's Artifacts of Doom, which were bad news in literally every continuity I recall them being mentioned in. Between that, Astra's apparent trepidation at the idea of using it, and the fact that it looks like it's all but eating the light around it, I am getting a really, really bad feeling about this thing. Not to mention the orb is cracked, so even if it doesn't have some sort of inherent corruptive or mind control effect, trying to use it still might cause it to literally blow up in our faces.

    "Do you actually trust this thing?" I ask, not bothering to hide my own reticence.

    "Absolutely not." Astra immediately replies, glaring at the unsettling sphere. "Everything Grandpa told me about this orb made it clear that it's incredibly dangerous, and I don't really even know how to use it. Apparently he and some other Kirlia could use it fine, but the one time we actually needed to, it...worked a bit too well."

    Her face falls for a moment, before returning to sullen annoyance. "Not to mention it's my best guess as to why I've been having these weird visions..."

    Visions? What- no, shelve that topic for later.

    "Still," Astra continues, her tone serious, "I think it might be necessary. As much as I'd like to go without, I don't think we can face those Stantler without having something up our sleeve, and with what you've said, I'm not really seeing any other way out of this."

    ...she does have a point. We are in a pretty tight spot right now, and this very well might be our only feasible option. In which case... well, it's not like the Red and Blue Orbs were inherently bad, right? They just really didn't like being "mismatched", and even if this one works similarly, it was apparently originally connected to a Gardevoir, so there shouldn't be a species conflict or anything. Plus, even if Astra isn't exactly a typical example of her species, I can't really imagine that Kirlia have some sort of secret primal reversion state I'd need to be concerned about.

    Still...

    "Let's... call that Plan B, maybe?" I suggest. "We can keep the orb on hand as a fallback option, but I'm sure there's something else we can try first."

    Astra gives the orb another lingering look, then nods. "Fine with me. I'd rather not use this if I don't absolutely have to... I suppose I should leave it out of the box for now though."

    Bundling the orb back up in the cloth it was hidden under, Astra separately places both it and the box it came from back in her bag. Meanwhile, I turn my thoughts inward again, still grasping for some small vestige of an alternative plan. Ergh, if only Astra had been a trainer for a little longer... TMs apparently exist in her world, so HMs probably do as well, meaning she'd undoubtedly have caught a decently large Flying-type at some point along the way simply for ease of transportation, which in turn would have made getting out of here incredibly easy-

    Wait... hang on. Come to think of it, Astra probably wouldn't have bothered catching a Flying-type, at least not just for getting around. She wouldn't need one, because-

    I lower my face into my hands.

    "I said it before, but allow me to reiterate — I'm an idiot."

    "Huh?" Astra says, taken aback by my sudden self-deprecation. "No you're not!"

    "Yes I am." I reply flatly, my words rather muffled from my face-full of palm. "We're not trapped here, or trapped anywhere for that matter, because there is literally nowhere that you, personally, are incapable of getting out of."

    Astra squints at me, tilting her head in confusion. "I'm... not following."

    "You know how you said 'maybe later' earlier?" I ask, looking up at the psychic. "Turns out, later is now."

    Astra blinks. "Wait, you want me to- look, I'd love to just pop us out of here, but like I said before, I still don't know how to teleport! Not very well, at least! I told you, I haven't had any practice yet!"

    "Well, now's the time to make up for that then." I reply, gesturing back to her bag. "The Stantler only followed us so far in, and you said you've got Leppa berries, right? If those work the way I think they do, then practicing it shouldn't run any risk of... erm, 'power exhaustion', I guess."

    Or whatever actual Pokemon call running out of PP.

    "You mean psychic fatigue? I… well, you're not wrong." Astra admits, looking a bit more thoughtful now. "But even if I figure it out instantly, I'd still need a destination; I can't just pop over to 'outside the forest' if I haven't already been there before. The best I'd probably be able to manage right now is like, small, line-of-sight hops."

    "Line-of-sight range should still be more than enough." I point out. "Hell, you could probably just climb a tree and port us straight across the canopy — even if it's not instantaneous, it should still keep the Stantler from following us, assuming they even manage to spot you up there to begin with. Even better if you can get us on top of one of the canyon walls; there's basically no chance they'd be able to follow us up there if they're as tall as you implied."

    Seriously, teleportation is such a ridiculous advantage maneuverability-wise that by all rights it should have been the first thing I thought of. In fact, it was the first thing I thought of, before we even knew that the Stantler were an issue. How did we go through like, four or five other ideas before getting back here?

    "Well... alright, I'll try." Astra says, capitulating. "Give me a moment?"

    I step back as she sets her bag down for the moment, then starts floating a couple small pebbles off the ground for some reason. A moment later however, she frowns and lets them drop, then turns to look at a nearby tree, maybe three meters away from her.

    "Okay." she mutters, her voice seeming quiet despite originating in my head. "Here goes..."

    She remains silent for the next few seconds, undoubtedly doing some sort of psychic calculation or measurement that I'm not qualified to truly comprehend, then slowly closes her eyes. I'm tempted to call out some kind of encouragement, but as this process presumably takes concentration, I wouldn't want to distract-

    I lose my train of thought as Astra suddenly blurs, vanishes, and—


    Space is not empty.

    Nor is it whole.

    Jagged light fills the hollow

    From seams and tears wrought from uncaring gods

    See the dancing flame at the edge of existence

    And know that none would care to stamp it out.

    ...

    Twice now has the world been set adrift.

    Paths and plans again shattered and reforged.

    And yet, a new canvas appears.

    Already scarred, yet ripe for the hands of an artist.

    ...

    I wonder which will be the first to break?    ​


    —reappears roughly a foot away from the tree she was previously staring at, leaving a muted clap of air in her wake. A moment later, she opens her eyes, perks up, and whirls around with a massive grin on her face.

    "I did it!" Astra cheers, throwing up her arms in celebration.

    "Congrats." I say, smiling. "I knew you could."

    I mean, I literally saw her do it earlier on instinct alone, so of course she could, but I'm not going to spoil the moment for her.

    "Hold on," Astra says, "let me just..."

    She focuses for a moment, then vanishes again, this time reappearing at a tree about five meters away. Then again, ten meters away. She does this several times in succession, each teleport crossing progressively more and more distance, until I spot the Kirlia abruptly appear across the river- and then she pops out, and back into existence directly in front of me.

    "Yes!" Astra exclaims, looking the happiest I've seen her so far. "Wow, that actually was a lot more- erk..."

    She wobbles unsteadily on her feet for a moment, one hand clutching at the top of her head.

    "B-berries..." she whimpers.

    Quickly getting the idea, I scamper over to her bag, rooting around in it until I come up with a small jar of roughly cherry-sized red and yellow fruits. I pass it to Astra, who opens it and quickly devours a couple of the berries within, the tension almost instantly leaving her body as she does so. Wow, those work fast.

    "Okay, I'm good now, I think." she says, sighing in apparent relief. "I guess I should be more careful about how quickly I do those in succession."

    She looks back up at me, grinning again. "You're right though, this might work! It's tiring, but not nearly as tough as I expected. Heh, actually, maybe I shouldn't be surprised; Grandpa is the best teleporter we have, and he's my Grandpa! Of course I'd be good at it. Anyway, like you said, if I can blink across the treetops, then the Stantler shouldn't be able to-"

    The Kirlia's cheer abruptly fades. "Wait... that'll work for me, but what about you? Bringing others along is way more advanced than just teleporting yourself, and you're not a Psychic-type, so I'm not even sure how safe it would be."

    "No worries." I reply, waving off her concerns. "Pokemon are hard, but I'm guessing objects aren't, right? Just put me back in the Poke Ball, and it should be fine."

    Astra blinks, seeming surprised by my suggestion. "I thought you said-"

    "Yeah, I know what I said." I interrupt. "Given the circumstances however, I'm more than willing to make an exception."

    Honestly, being inside a Poke Ball wasn't even that bad. Just kind of odd, really — a bit like being shrunk and shoved into a tiny, spherical hotel room, albeit one I'm forced to curl up in. It was comfy enough, and I could even still see and hear outside, sort of. My main objection is really just to potentially being stuck in the ball for extended periods of time without the option of leaving it on my own, not the concept in and of itself.

    "Are you sure?" Astra asks, even as she fishes my ball back out from under her robe.

    I nod. "I trust you to let me back out once we're safe. You ready?"

    It takes her a moment, but Astra nods.

    "Ready."

    Holding the Poke Ball out towards me, she presses the button on the front, and I vanish in a beam of red light.


    Astra

    Astra tucked Mawile's ball away, smiling to herself.

    As it turned out, directed teleportation really wasn't anywhere near as tricky as she'd imagined it to be. It was tiring, to be sure, but not actually hard, at least not now that she'd evolved. Maybe if she was teleporting to someone it would be more of a challenge, and jumping longer distances would undoubtedly be a quick route to a bad migraine, but for destinations she could see directly, weren't moving, and were practically only a stone's throw away? Stamina seemed like the only real issue, at least thus far.

    After doing a couple more sample jumps with all her stuff on this time, just to make sure she wasn't going to accidentally leave anything behind, Astra decided that was probably as much practice as she could risk without running down her supplies. Gulping down a few more Leppa berries, she tucked the jar back into her bag, then hefted it onto her side and readied herself.

    She sure hoped this worked...

    Wanting to conserve as much energy as possible, Astra elected to climb the first tree on the "route" manually. It only took her a minute or so to reach the top, which would have been a record when she was still a Ralts — the additional foot of height she'd recently gained was a major help, and the extra finger she now had on each hand certainly didn't hurt either. Being able to grab things this easily was so nice!

    Clinging to the tree's topmost branch, she took a moment to look around. The cliffs, or rather, canyon walls — not that Astra had really known what a "canyon" was prior to Mawile explaining it — loomed large over the forest, towering at least twice, maybe even thrice as high as the treetops proper. When she'd seen them before, she'd mostly just found them annoying in how they kept her from seeing anything beyond them, but now...

    Astra grinned. Now, they represented a way out of this mess. She hadn't been sure about it before, but now that she'd gotten some practice in, she was pretty sure that as long as she could see and visualize where she wanted to land, she could teleport just about anywhere. Though, if she wanted to not immediately pass out at the other end, she'd still probably need to get a little closer first.

    Her eyes roamed around until they caught upon a small plateau sticking out of one of the cliff walls in the distance, more than large enough to land on. Perfect — if she was really going to try to get on top of the canyon, that would be an excellent midway jumping point. She could do this!

    Gathering her concentration, Astra focused on a treetop a fair ways in the distance, concentrated, and—

    *pop!*

    —found herself atop its highest branch. She wheeled for a moment, the branch in question being rather narrow — but, now that she was a Kirlia, re-balancing seemed to come almost naturally. Smiling as she steadied herself, Astra turned to the next tree.

    Several hops later, the plateau was looking much, much closer, and Astra was feeling good, having neither seen nor sensed any sign of the Stantler yet. She'd already crossed what had to be a good quarter of the forest, and it was only a couple more jumps to go!

    She teleported again, reappearing atop a tree with wide, spreading branches that looked perfectly suited for purchase-

    And immediately began to plummet, her feet failing to catch on anything at all. What-?!

    Screaming in surprise as the ground came rushing up to meet her, Astra quickly yanked her arms downwards and let out a pulse of unfocused psychic force, the energy impacting the grass below just a split second before-

    !-!-WHUMPF-!-!

    -she did.

    A few moments later, groaning in pain, Astra rolled over onto her side.

    Well, it could have been worse... her psychic pulse hadn't done much to actually cushion her fall as she'd hoped, but it had at least pushed her into a position where she hadn't landed on her head. Why had she fallen through that branch in the first place though? It wasn't like it had snapped beneath her, she'd somehow just fallen straight through it, like it wasn't even-

    Astra's neck snapped up as she realized that she was now sitting directly in the center of a number of similar, familiar life signatures — ones which were actively closing in on her even now.

    She scrambled to her feet, just in time to see over twenty separate Stantler emerging from the surrounding forest — or rather, from the air, as a number of the surrounding trees abruptly wavered out of existence, revealing Astra to actually be standing in the middle of a clearing. But how?! She would have noticed any illusion placed directly on-

    Astra's eyes widened as she realized what must have happened — the Stantler hadn't caught her in an illusion, they had laid an illusion over the area itself. And because she had been basing her jumps off of line of sight, she had teleported directly into their midst, possibly- no, undoubtedly just as planned. Damn it!

    Her eyes flickered from side to side as the Stantler continued to tighten their circle. They weren't emitting their terror aura yet, and their horns couldn't make her dizzy as long as she didn't look at them, but they already had her boxed in. She could still teleport out, but they were definitely fast enough to catch up again if she didn't put a lot of distance between them...

    Astra's gaze turned back to the edge of the plateau, still visible from here owing to the recently-vanished tree cover. It was probably still too far away to safely jump to — it was certainly a greater distance than the one she made across the river — but she didn't have much choice. She'd undoubtedly end up with a splitting migraine coming out the other end, but if she could just buy a bit of time, and get a few moments to concentrate...

    A Stantler abruptly stepped forward from the rest of the herd. Not the same one from before, Astra silently noted — this one looked older, with grayer fur than the other Stantler, as well as considerably larger antlers, and what looked like the beginnings of a small mane beneath its neck. Astra even thought she could detect a bit of genuine psychic power lurking beneath this particular Stantler's surface, making her even warier. Their leader...?

    "My apologies, young lady," the Stantler in question spoke, his deep voice seeming further wizened by age. "But I'm afraid I'll need you to hand over the creature you have in that ball under your robe."

    Astra bit back a curse. They already knew where Mawile was... but she had no choice now but to stand her ground.

    "Not going to happen." she replied, half her attention still on setting up her impending teleport. "Like I'd ever hand her over to jerks like you, just so you can have fun repeatedly screwing with her sense of direction."

    The Stantler leader ruefully shook his head.

    "It seems one of the younger members of my herd has given you the wrong impression." he sighed. "True, we enjoy such pranks, but that is hardly the primary reason we wish to curb the movements of that unnatural thing."

    Astra recoiled a little, taken aback by the sudden vehemence in the Stantler's voice, before anger caused her to rally again.

    "Why do you keep calling her a 'thing'?" she demanded in the psychic version of a growl. "She's my friend! And what do you mean 'unnatural'?"

    "Your friend?" the Stantler incredulously repeated. "My dear, have you truly not realized?"

    Just a little longer; she almost had it-!

    "Whatever that creature is, it is not a Pokemon."

    Astra's concentration faltered.

    What...?

    "It certainly looks like one, yes," the Stantler elaborated, "but that is mere surface appearance. The slightest glance beneath the surface will reveal there is something fundamentally wrong with it; foreign in a way that defies description. Surely, as a psychic, you sensed as much yourself?"

    "...I don't make a habit of poking around people's heads." Astra replied, unable to help herself, even as she privately cursed herself for letting her attention waver.

    The Stantler snorted. "Unwise of you. You cannot know your enemies if you are unwilling to take such a basic step. Regardless, the creature should count itself lucky we have merely chosen to contain its existence, rather than to stamp it out entirely. Its savagery alone would be cause enough to justify such."

    Beneath her cloak, Astra felt Mawile's Poke Ball begin rocking back and forth.

    "That is hardly the only reason for our precautions, however." the Stantler continued, sending a tangible ripple of unease through the rest of the herd. "Even more than how dangerous it is on a personal level, it is also unnatural to the world at large. We know this, for its arrival in this forest several days ago was accompanied by an immense distortion in the fabric of space, making its presence here a transgression upon reality itself... something it apparently saw fit to repeat this morning, in fact."

    Astra's eyes widened. A distortion in space? Wait, had the Stantler somehow sensed-

    A small psychic pulse suddenly ran through her, surprise leading Astra to fail to block it. As it passed through her body, she felt as though she was somehow being seen through; scrutinized on some undetectable level... and at the same time, the lead Stantler suddenly squinted at her, causing a sudden shiver to run down her spine.

    "Wait..." the Stantler spoke in a low voice. "Now that I look... you don't feel like you belong to this world either."

    Uh oh.

    "Well, I suppose that makes sense then." the Stantler noted, his tone growing harsher. "Nothing else would willingly partner with that twisted beast, after all."

    Astra tried not to swallow.

    "Look," she started, her voice firm, "you've got the wrong idea. Mawile and I aren't actually-"

    The world abruptly seemed to tilt on its axis, causing Astra to stumble in place. When she looked back up, she found herself now standing in a massive desert, the sand beneath her feet rapidly giving way.

    Though her first instinct was to panic, Astra quickly calmed — while her eyes told her that she was currently sinking into an endless sea of sand, her psychic senses informed her otherwise. She was still standing exactly where she had been a moment ago, surrounded by the Stantler's life signatures — this was just an illusion, if a more powerful one than expected. She wouldn't be fooled by this.

    Mentally grasping for the threads of the illusion invading her mind, she quickly located and began unraveling them, teasing them apart until they came completely undone. A moment later, the world wavered and collapsed back into normality.

    ...and there was a Stantler reared up in front of her, its front hooves mid-way through the motion of kicking her in the chest.

    All of the air in Astra's lungs evacuated from them in a single moment as she went flying backwards from the impact. As she crashed to the ground, so too did Mawile's Poke Ball, flying free of her cloak and splitting back open in a burst of white light.

    "There you are." the Stantler who had kicked her growled.

    "Yeah, here I am, you assholes!" Mawile screeched as she reformed, immediately spinning on one foot and sending forth a gust of sparkling pink wind. Washing over the entire herd, the seemingly-harmless breeze began to snap against their hides, causing many of the Stantler to let out brays of pain.

    "I heard you in there, and you can take your stupid suspicions and shove them!" Mawile continued shouting as Astra scrambled back to her feet, desperately taking in air. "I didn't want to be here! I didn't want to be this! And the only reason I've been reduced to 'savagery' of late is apparently because of YOU!!!"

    Mawile split her maw open and glared. The Stantler who'd attacked Astra scrambled backwards, and even the surrounding ones began to rear up and back away, flashes of terror crossing their faces as their enclosing ring began to fall apart-

    "Calm."

    As their leader's pronouncement rippled out over the clearing, the herd stilled. Ceasing their backwards motion, they steadily closed in again.

    …and then, one by one, their own fear-inducing auras began to reemerge. Astra's breath briefly seized at the return of the literally horrifying pressure, while Mawile, still bearing the brunt of the herd's attention, seemed to almost violently choke. The smaller Pokemon's own fear aura sputtered out as she wordlessly collapsed to her knees, breathless whimpers the only thing now making it out of her throat. No-!

    With their primary target incapacitated, the Stantler collectively turned to Astra. Terrified, but still standing, she shakily formed an orb of psychic energy in one hand, holding it out at the surrounding Pokemon like a ward.

    "S-stay back!" she cried, words faltering as even basic telepathy began to fail her, the all-encompassing cloud of dread making any sort of concentration nigh-impossible. "Don't c-come any closer-!"

    Unfazed, the Stantler began to stalk forward, the weight of their presence only climbing higher as their ring continued to shrink inwards. Astra quickly squeezed her eyes shut, but still she felt the panic creeping in, the life signatures in her mind's eye now looming over her like ever-growing monsters.

    "I apologize," she heard the herd leader speak from her right, "but I'm afraid you don't get to simply run this time..."

    The fear in her mind crescendoed, and rational thought left her completely.

    "G-get away, get away get away get AWAY-!!!"

    Astra's free arm dove down into her bag as though of its own accord, desperately questing for the only thing that could save her now, all former reservations dashed in the face of the mind-melting terror now running through her brain-

    Her hand touched crystal, her mind burrowed further, and in an instant, the fear was gone. Vanished, as though it had never even been.

    And in the void left behind, gorging on a torrent of raw, unfiltered power, was a pitch-dark, all-consuming rage.


    Mawile

    I realize that something has changed the moment the crushing aura of fear abruptly seems to evaporate off of me, and I hear Astra suddenly make a noise somewhere between a gasp and a sigh.

    As my brain attempts to reboot, having previously all but blacked out from the sheer fear flowing through me, I realize that the Stantler must have just turned their attention to Astra. When I finally manage to look up however, I realize that while that much is true, it's apparently not why she gasped. That was due to the sudden haze of violet mist that's rapidly creeping over her arm...

    And the cracked, dark purple orb now clutched tightly in the hand attached to it.

    "U-um... As... tra...?" I stutter, pushing myself back up on still-shaking legs.

    Astra just starts cackling in response, laughing both telepathically and from her actual mouth, her already-dual voice gaining an eerie resonance in the process. Meanwhile, the dark fog surrounding her arm continues crawling up her body, dying jagged stripes of deepest black across her hair and skin.

    "So... you won't let us leave, right...?" Astra whispers as her mouth curls up into a manic grin.

    The herd leader takes a startled step back. "What- what have you- what are-"

    "You really think you can just attack us, terrify us, and get away with it?" Astra interrupts, her crooked smile widening even further. "You really should have just left us alone!"

    The sphere of energy hovering beyond her outstretched hand abruptly triples in size, drastically darkening in hue as it does so. The Stantler surrounding us balk and begin to rapidly backpedal again, breaking their encircling ring wide open in the process — but I can hardly take advantage of that, too busy beginning to panic myself as Astra's ball of psychic power just continues growing larger and larger. Damn it, I was right, that thing is corruptive or something!

    "Astra!" I yelp as the surrounding light begins to fade, the visibly twisting blackness contained within the ever-growing attack somehow darkening even the world around us. "Let go of the orb!"

    "Why?" Astra asks, her already crimson eyes now glowing an even deeper red. "I have these pests handled."

    "I'm not actually that worried about them anymore!"

    As if to punctuate this, the Stantler leader suddenly lets out a loud, warbling cry, and the herd abruptly turns and flees, not a single word exchanged between them as they begin stampeding off into the forest.

    "Can't take what you dish out?" Astra sneers, turning in the same direction that the Stantler just fled. "Figures. But don't expect me to return your earlier courtesy. After all..."

    Her eyes flash, and the pulsing sphere jitters like a living thing as she lifts it over her head. "YOU DON'T GET TO SIMPLY RUN!"

    "Astra, NO!!!"

    "SO JUST LAY DOWN-"

    I lunge forward in tandem with the downward swing of her arm, the massive ball of power all but blotting out the sky.

    "-AND DI—!"

    My maw slams into the side of Astra's arm a split second before she can finish her pronouncement. The impact unsteadies her, wildly throwing off her aim.

    ...but the attack still goes flying from her hand.

    Time seems to dilate as I watch the globe of psychic hatred go flying, slamming into and through the surrounding trees without slowing down in the slightest; annihilating them like a tiny inverted sun. Surging forward on a slight downward incline, the energy rips through ground and wood alike, until it's practically tunneling into the earth itself. Before it can go completely underground however, the sphere's outline seems to judder, and I swear I see the darkness at its center writhing as though desperately trying to escape, before the entire thing abruptly seems to come undone, and-

    The light, or rather darkness hits me first, overtaking so much of my vision that for a moment I think I've gone blind. Then comes the wind, a gale with the force of hurricane slamming into me and blasting my tiny body backwards through the air. I don't even manage to cry out before I slam into a tree back-first, the impact forcing nearly every scrap of air from my lungs, then fall back to the ground where I crash land on my stomach and face, allowing me to feel the earth quaking like it's about to split open underneath me.

    In pain and struggling to move, I manage to lift my head again, just in time to see chaotically-fluctuating streams of purple-tinted blackness slam into the now easily-visible canyon walls. The ground shakes even more as enormous chunks of rock are carved out of the cliffsides and come crumbling down into the forest, accompanied by what has to be every single bird Pokemon in the vicinity shrieking in tandem as they take off into the sky as quickly as they possibly can.

    Terrified out of my wits, there's nothing I can do but wrap my horns around myself, place my tiny hands over my face, and curl up into a ball as I pray that the world stops ending soon...

    Before it ends me along with it.

    .

    .

    .

    .

    .

    A minute that feels like a millennia later, the sound of crashing rock and exploding energy finally dies away. At roughly the same time, the ground ceases bucking like the maw of hell is opening up nearby, stillness overcoming the land once more.

    Forcing myself to uncurl, no matter how frightening the idea currently seems, I hesitantly, achingly push myself to my feet...

    And find myself staring out at a portrait of pure, utter ruin.

    The ground for what has to be at least a solid half-mile in front of us has been carved into a thirty-foot wide trench. Absolutely nothing remains of the trees that were in the attack's direct path, and even those outside of its immediate range have been toppled over like playing cards, the pressure of the psychic blast's passing alone apparently having been enough to rip their roots right out of the ground. At the distant epicenter of the blast, a lake-sized crater in the ground now sits, a large patch of darkness still floating over it like a tiny, static black hole.

    The Stantler are nowhere to be seen. Nothing is anywhere to be seen, even as the sounds of panicked bird-squawks and hysterical wildlife continue to erupt from what little remains of the forest in front of us.

    As I gaze out upon the miniature cataclysm with wide, disbelieving eyes, my vision catches on the Orb of Doom, the artifact having apparently fallen at some point and rolled to a stop at the base of a tree. The cloth it was wrapped in is caught on a nearby bush, miraculously both still intact and not blown half a forest away.

    Stumbling over to the cloth in a near-delirious rush, I tear it from the bush before scrambling over to the Orb and frantically wrapping the fabric around it, making absolute certain not to touch the cursed thing myself as I do so. Only once the last shadowy scrap is finally covered again do I finally manage to regain some semblance of coherent thought.

    Why the fuck did I advocate for using this thing as the backup plan. Why the fuck does Astra even have something like this?! I knew using it might be a mistake, but what kind of apocalyptic emergencies was her grandpa expecting her to run into that she would need something like THIS to take care of them?!

    "I- I..."

    I turn, wincing from the pulse of pain that doing so too quickly causes. Still positioned at the blast's immediate site of origin, Astra has fallen to her knees, her legs having seemingly given out beneath her. The stripes of black have thankfully disappeared from her body, the orb's effect presumably having ended once she stopped holding onto it... but the real damage is already done.

    I limp over to her side.

    "Astra...?"

    She doesn't respond, merely continuing to stare sightlessly out at the destruction.

    "Astra!" I repeat, shaking her shoulder this time.

    Her head turns fractionally towards mine, face still frozen in an expression of utter shock.

    "Damn it, snap out of it already!" I growl.

    Nerves stretched to the limit, I force Ghost-type energy to the surface of my skin, eyes glowing red as I activate Astonish. Astra rears back as though I just slapped her, taking in a gasping heave of breath at the same time.

    "I'm sorry!" I immediately apologize, ending the attack. "You were insensate, and I couldn't think of any other way to-"

    Before I can even finish my sentence, Astra wraps her arms around me in a death grip of a hug and begins to cry, or perhaps more accurately bawl her heart out. Though the pressure she's putting on my rapidly-forming bruises hurts, I do my best to wrap my arms around her in turn, knowing she needs the comfort.

    "Shh..." I whisper to her, softly as I can manage. "We're okay... it'll be okay..."

    Yet as I look over Astra's shoulder at the ruins of the forest, I can't help but wonder just how true that is.
     
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