Chapter 13
- Location
- Home
Venturing the Worlds – 13
Ruby knelt down. "Are you okay?" She asked the blonde girl, ignoring the familiar sense of dread going behind her back.
She didn't fear Magnus, if anything it reminded her the man has carried her to safety while using a similar trick to reduce most people into gibbering mess. In her case it was another kind of mess. But she also knew that not everyone could face such a presence and was using herself to shield the girl and her Pokemon.
"I'm-yes, I'm okay, it's just-" She flinched when the small Vulpix pressed against her leg. But she didn't pull away.
Ruby smiled softly to reassure her. "I'm Ruby, and my companion is Magnus, what are your names?"
"I'm Lillie, and this is Snowy." The girl answered.
"She's very cute, is she your Pokemon?" Ruby asked gently, aiming to keep her attention on her.
"Ah, not exactly." The girl looked away.
"Yes, I am." The Vulpix barked, but the girl didn't understand her.
"I think she has a different opinion about it." Ruby giggled softly as she pointed out how the little fox tried to get closer, though she still respected her personal space.
A rustling sound made her look over her shoulder, seeing the lack of Team Rocket made her curious. But Magnus was walking calmly in their way.
"They left." He answered her unasked question. "Hello Lillie, I am Magnus, are you okay?"
The girl nodded.
"And you, Snowy?" He asked the Vulpix, who also nodded. "That's good to hear, you two must be tired from the run, would you like an ice cream?" He gestured to the shop they were still standing in front of.
"No, it's okay, you don't have to worry." The girl blushed and tried to reject.
"Hmm… I've a perfect idea, but I will need your little friend's help. Do you want to help me make something for Lillie, Snowy?" Magnus looked towards the little fox as he retrieved a bottle of water and a handful of berries.
"Wh-where did those come from?" Lillie asked, surprised by the act.
"Just a little magic, what do you say, Snow?" The Vulpix yipped in agreement.
Ruby watched as he drew the water from the bottle and the fox froze it with their breath. She didn't miss how the low-key rings he wore beat almost imperceptibly with his magic to control the elements. Not just the water, but wind in a trick she had taught him. The clear sphere of ice was reduced to snow and collected in a bowl. He then did something similar to the sweet berries, frozen and shaved down snow, to mix it with some honey and into the already shaved ice.
"Here you have." He handed the bowl to the girl. "Some shaved ice made by your friend to make you feel better."
Ruby pulled a spoon from her inventory. "Here you go." She gave the girl a smile. "Magic." She explained.
The girl looked dubious at the answer, Ruby found the girl to be quite sharp to just not accept such an out-there answer. Though it wasn't entirely a lie.
She took a bite out of the ice and shivered. "It's cold, but so good!" Her eyes were practically stars as she ate another spoonful.
"That's good, Lillie!" The Vulpix cheered at her reaction.
"Oh, you want some too, Snowy?" The girl knelt down and took a spoonful before feeding the small fox.
They shivered after a spoonful, their eyes sparking in a similar manner. "It's very good."
"Thank you." The blonde bowed deeply towards him.
"Hey, hey, hey, no need for that." Magnus helped her straighten up. "I like to help, you should ask Ruby how we met, though I don't know if you would believe her." He joked, causing her to blush and smack his arm.
"Can I ask how you did all that with water?" She asked. "It was definitely not a Pokemon move."
He laughed softly. "I wasn't lying that it was magic." He Showed her his rings, the small silver bands had tiny gemstones encrusted on them. "These allow me to perform small tricks with fire, water, wind and metal." He explained.
"I can't believe magic is real… Can you, Snowy?" She asked her companion.
"Of course! Though, why do you smell like a fox?" They asked him.
"That's a secret." He gave the fox a silence gesture. "Would you like us to accompany you home?"
Ruby was pretty sure the girl wanted to grumble and say that wasn't an answer. But those emotions only flickered in her face.
"Okay, my friends should be around here." She answered. "But they should have already been here." She added with a frown on her face.
"We can stay, we've nothing to do." Ruby offered to soothe the girl's worries.
The girl sighed. "I just know they got into some trouble." She admitted. "...and I'm missing it."
Snowy reached to pat at the girl's leg, Ruby didn't miss that while the girl flinched, she appeared to be trying to get over it. She couldn't imagine what she had gone through given how friendly Pokemon were.
"Why don't you tell us about them while we wait?" Magnus offered as they sat down.
"Well, there's Ash, he joined the class just a bit ago…" The girl started to tell them about her friends, calming down and missing the fact that the Vulpix had scooted up to her side.
Romeo finished pulling the mask over his face and the hood over his head, effectively hiding his features with the exception of the small area around his eyes. Not that even that was visible, while he couldn't see it unless he checked on a mirror, a small amount of darkness hid everything but his pupils.
It was a bit of cliché ninja clothing, but he couldn't deny it was comfortable, easy to wear and move, and effectively could shift its color to better camouflage with its environment. It even had a hole for their tail to slide out if they shifted.
Moisha hadn't lost a moment after hiding her face to shift, from them she was the more lackadaisical about not transforming. Not that he didn't follow a moment later. Lydia just raised an eyebrow at them.
It was just more comfortable for all of them and Magnus had already made sure they wouldn't be able to get captured, especially as they just looked like a group of cosplaying ninjas more than half-animal people.
"I talked with the Ratticates in charge, you two will be running distraction while I go with the main team to take over an old nest in the area." Lydia explained.
"I love easy missions, I just gotta make a lot of noise and get out of the way." Moisha said, followed with a giggle.
"Are you sure about it?" Romeo couldn't help but still feel a bit worried.
"Yes, I ran a little private scouting mission through the area earlier. The tall trees should provide plenty of shadows for everyone to hide." She explained. "The teams you will be joining should keep the birds distracted long enough for enough rats to move into the nest, once that happens it will become harder for the birds to root them out."
"Uh, for some reason I was expecting something more aggressive." Moisha admitted.
Lydia gave a shrug. "I looked into things, the Rattatas and Ratticates until recently had been feeding out of a warehouse, they got run out of the easy target by the police with help of some other local Pokemon and some trainers."
"Oh, I see." Moisha nodded. "It's just easier to defend a territory you own rather than fight for someone else's."
"Yes, the area's also pretty bereft of other species, so adding some variety shouldn't be bad. At worst the Ratticates have to move away, at best both find a balance." She shrugged after speaking.
Romeo couldn't help but agree. "Hmm, we'll be long gone by then." He said,
"Yeah, anyways, you know where to go. Try not to get caught." Lydia joked before fixing her mask and leaving.
He didn't miss her tail swaying behind her.
He gave Moisha a nod and headed towards the group of Rattatas he would be joining.
"Oh, you're that guy!" One of the young rats called out when he approached.
"Yes, I'll be helping in the distraction."
One of the larger ones huffed. "What can a two-legged one like you do?"
"This." He reached to pinch the Rattata's nape and pick them up, leaving the rat incapable of breaking out.
"Hey! Let go! Come on! Not in front of everyone!"
He placed them back down. "Size and hands are very useful, believe me."
The Rattata huffed and moved away before the signal came to move.
His team was made up of about a dozen Rattatas and a single Ratticate. The first stage Pokemons were varied in size, from just below average to one that was nearing the Ratticate's size, though the evolution was definitely on the smaller size compared to the matriarch they had met a day earlier. It was kinda obvious they had been put in the role simply because of their stage as the group followed the largest Rattata more than they followed them.
The leader of the group stopped by one of the trees and gave the order to climb, Romeo would have definitely used his claws for it, but instead he aimed the arm with the band up and activated the hookshot. A barely glowing chain made of some kind of blue energy shot out from the jewel and latched onto one of the big branches up high, quickly tensing and dragging him up.
He could tell it was pulling on all of his body as there was barely any strain on his arm, he once more had to admit it, Magnus was crazy good at what he did. His mind wandered towards the weapon he had been given.
It surprised him to be the first to name his blade. Icy Moon rattled like a diamondback ready to defend itself. Coming with the name had been strange, meditation hadn't been something he expected to improve in so quickly. But it only had taken a few days before he had made contact with the Will of the blade.
When he had been told the Gleeok was ancient it hadn't made sense to him. But meeting even a third of the creature had shaken him to the core. A head large enough to swallow him in one gulp, an eye that froze him in place, and the hate… the hate. The ancient being had lived for a long time and had been sealed for longer, and the first thing that happened once it got released was it got beaten, killed and butchered.
It had been a few long and harrowing minutes that felt like hours. But he had managed to come to a certain understanding with the King Gleeok, or at least that head, they would do their best together to beat Magnus. And while the Gleeok had wanted to kill him, Romeo had managed to remind the monster that even them hadn't been able to beat him once Magnus got serious.
The Gleeok had also wanted to step on the moon, and while Romeo had offered to step on a moon, the monster had insisted it had to be Hyrule's. It made him wonder if there was a reason for it, but without heading to the World and checking he couldn't honestly tell.
Maybe it had been that request that had led him to offer the name Icy Moon, as surprising as it had been for the weapon to accept it. The blade had changed, going from dull blue to looking as if it had actually been carved out of an iceberg, and Romeo stopped caring for changes of temperature. If he had to admit, the constant chill was pleasant.
But he wasn't going to use such a weapon here, he had no enmity with the birds and no reason to kill them.
"How did you make it up here so quickly?!" The Ratticate screamed.
"Nin-nin." Romeo joked and looked ahead instead of saying anything else, he could see a few of the nests and the bird Pokemon eating some of the fruit growing from the branches.
The leader Rattata ignored the by-play. "Remember our mission, just having them run after us is enough." He called out, getting a glare from the Ratticate.
Romeo made a mental note to keep an eye on the Pokemon, that was the kind of glare he had seen plenty of times before. The kind that practically screamed that they were about to do something very stupid if given a chance.
The leader looked at him. "It's your turn."
Romeo nodded and moved, jumping from branch to branch as if it was solid ground and not nearly a dozen meters into the air. The small Pikipeks didn't even notice him until he was practically on them, but the birds weren't his objective. Instead he grabbed the largest, juiciest fruit and ran away once they realized what he had just done.
At the cry of "Thief!" The flock quickly took flight and rushed after him.
The Rattatas were ready and surprised the birds, and him, by releasing a barrage of black and purple spheres. And to add to that, the attacks seemed to do nothing more than scare the birds into breaking their flight, trying to dodge attacks that went harmlessly through them.
Romeo quickly reached the Rattatas who turned and joined him in running away.
"Shadow Ball, Pikipeks are immune to it." The leader decided to explain. "It's not an attack that we can learn normally, but we stole one of those machines the humans use and passed it around."
He raised an eyebrow, not that it showed with his mask.
"You may not know it, but we don't normally learn long-distance moves. Shadow Ball is one of the few we can learn this way, unfortunately as you saw, it's ineffective against the birds."
He nodded, that was something he could understand.
The sounds of angry birds only increased as they got the Pikipeks and the Trumbeaks that joined them the go around. They may be able to fight, but they still stopped to dodge the Shadow Balls they launched from time to time.
Romeo also helped too, of course. The armband had a series of nice distraction tools, from noise makers to small flash-bombs. None really dangerous, but certainly was surprising when there was suddenly a flashlight aimed at your eyes. They were also constructs, so once used left nothing behind.
He flung another handful of the flashing pellets behind, mixing a few of the noisemakers mixed in. He made a mental note to ask Magnus if they could be made to float.
There was suddenly a much larger noise in the distance, one that didn't sound like a distraction. It sounded like an actual fight.
"Was that any of you?" He quickly sent the way of his two partners.
"Nothing here." Moisha answered quickly, not sounding even winded up.
"Some trainers are helping the birds keep the rats from taking over the abandoned nest." Lydia answered a moment later. "I'm keeping my distance for now."
He snorted, she didn't say anything about not interfering.
He looked at the Rattata leader. "Some trainers are helping the birds, I will keep them distracted, I would suggest you go and support the main group."
The rat nodded curtly. "Good idea… thank you." They bowed their heads before turning around and barking orders to the rest.
"Hey, you want this, no?" Romeo called out the birds still following them, distracting them as the Rattatas started to move away one by one, soon he was the only one, the focus of their full attention.
Now all he had to do was keep them going in circles for a few more minutes.
Lydia remained hidden, hugging the back of one of her trees and making her presence as little as possible. Her breath had slowed down as she remained completely immobile and observing.
Things had been going well until a Rowlet had flown into the area, a colorful group of young kids followed the bird and released more Pokemon that she could be interested to name.
She was already starting to doubt that the Ratticate's plan was going to work when the Toucannon flew down from its nest to keep them from achieving their goal.
Unfortunately she couldn't finish this quickly by pulling her sword out. Even if unnamed, she was pretty sure the monster in it would relish in imposing its presence in the area. But since her side didn't know about it, it was bound to scare everyone.
Instead she activated the armband to create a small slingshot and loaded it up with the small explosive marbles. She was glad her Job provided some skill in using any kind of small weapon… for some reason. She was honestly a bit confused and had asked about it.
While Magnus hadn't known the answer, Orange had explained that her Job was most likely based on the feats carried by a pretty old fictional character. She didn't know what to say to that, but it was very effective and useful. Plus as they had told her, it was only fictional in their World, and it may as well be true somewhere else.
She released the payload and watched it fly before bouncing against a tree and exploding just behind the Toucannon's head, effectively distracting him and earning the bird a direct hit from the ice attack of one of the matriarchs.
It wasn't enough to sway the course of the battle, but it definitely had eased some of the pressure on the matriarchs and their Rattatas. She prepared a noise maker and shot it off right into the bushes behind the trainers.
It wasn't just the Pokemon that were fighting. It had taken her a bit to understand something about the World. When Magnus and Orange had explained that no one reached the top alone, they meant that the relation between Trainer and Pokemon went further than just orders and guidance. Disrupting the Trainers was as effective as disrupting the Pokemon themselves.
She ponders for a moment using one of the smoke bomb pellets, but with so many bird Pokemon around it's just not going to last more than a second.
She rethought her plan and shifted down into full rat-form to sneak around the trees and unload a few more flash bombs and noise makers. It was working to balance the fight, but it was becoming obvious for the trainers that something was happening.
It was obvious she needed something a bit bigger. That's why it surprised her when Romeo practically ran through the battlefield in sight of everyone, carving a long trench with his blade from which a wall of ice rose in the matter of an instant.
She wanted to scream at him, but noticed that no one had managed to react, even the few birds that had been running after him looked surprised by the whole thing. The most impressive thing had been that Icy Moon hadn't scared the lights out of everyone, was naming the damn weapon so damn important?!
The battle had stopped cold, even the few birds that had been running after him were surprised and stopped. The break turned out to be enough for the Ratticates to move into the nest, the old, hollowed-out tree trunk was just the entrance to what they had been explained was an old set of burrows used by other Pokemon, but long since abandoned.
She had asked why they didn't try to dig their way to it, but apparently there were plenty of other Pokemon that lived underground and would make it much harder, on top of the many tree roots in the area.
She could honestly not tell if she was being fed a load of bullshit, she had never had to dig her way through a forest or anything similar. But with the matriarchs taking the old nest, the mission was completed. It meant they could retreat, she would have to scream at Romeo for his actions though.
Lillie waved at the strange couple as they parted ways with her. She was thankful to them for helping her, but she couldn't shake the feeling that there was something going on with them. And it wasn't her feeling extremely jealous of Magnus' hair, it was just unfair that he didn't do anything special to maintain such a long braid. She had to work so hard with all the salt in the air.
Ruby had been nothing if kind and understanding with her, not even pushing her on why she didn't feel comfortable touching Snowy. Maybe it was because none of them had Pokemon on them. Though she wondered what Magnus had done to get Team Rocket to run away, Ruby had been in the way and kept distracting her.
"Vul." Snowy's cry makes her look down.
She went down to her knees and carefully tried to reach for the fox. She managed to get a finger onto their head before her hand pulled away reflexively. Her heart was beating hard inside of her chest, it felt like it was trying to escape up her throat.
"Sorry Snowy, I promise I'll get over it." She sighed, feeling a bit defeated. "Maybe we should see about sharing more shaved ice? You will help me make more, no?"
"Vul-pix!" Her friend agreed.
"Thank you, though I doubt I'll manage to make it as good as Magnus, I don't have magic…" She grumbled, but couldn't help to feel amazed by the show she had been given.
"Lillie!" Ash called out, waving as she joined the group.
She didn't miss the fact that all of them had their clothes rumpled and were slightly dirty, the few Pokemon outside of their balls were similarly dirty.
"Hey guys, what happened?" She asked.
The question caused a series of reactions, a few frowns, a couple of embarrassed looks and even Ash looking nervous.
"Well, Rowlet's friend asked us for help since some Rattatas and Ratticates were trying to move into their territory." He quickly explained with his usual energy.
She blinked. "So you made them run away?"
"Ehm… No…" Ash laughed nervously after answering, rubbing the back of his head as Pikachu facepalmed. "Someone was helping them and then there was this strange figure that zipped past and distracted up with a huge ice wall, allowing the Ratticates to move into the spot they were trying to take over."
"Team Rocket?" Lillie asked, though internally she doubted it.
Ash shook his head. "I don't think so, they weren't trying to capture any Pokemon."
"I think it was an unknown Pokemon." Sophocles insisted. "I'm sure I saw they had a tail, I bet they are an Ice and Dark type."
"Unfortunately I failed to get any good pictures of them." Rotom admitted in a depressed tone.
"We'll have to tell Professor Kukui about it, he may know something." Ash said, always optimistic.
"Maybe the Kahuna knows something too." Mallow reminded them.
"How about, Lillie? Everything okay?" Lana prompted a change of subject, causing the young blonde to blush as all attention was suddenly on her.
"I got chased by Team Rocket, they were trying to steal Snowy," she took a moment to breathe and quickly added, "don't worry, nothing happened. I came across a couple that helped me, Team Rocket got dragged away by the Bewear before anything happened."
"What did they do?" Lana asked.
"I don't know." She admitted, laughing similarly to how Ash had done earlier. "Ruby kept me distracted while Magnus confronted Team Rocket. They said they are vacationing, so you may see them around, they are quite eye-catching." She added as they started to walk towards the Pokemon School.
Unfortunately for her, her friends didn't stop assailing her with questions. Thankfully Snowy's presence by her legs helped her relax.
awesome chapter