Friday, June 9th, 1978, 1800
The imposing man gave a sharp yank, and I stumbled forward. The slippery stones beneath me made it impossible to resist, especially given my bare feet. I could feel myself falling, but before I keeled over, he reached down and grasped my hair. And not gently.
I felt a hot flare of pain at the rough treatment. I rationally knew he hadn't just torn my scalp off, but the pain suggested otherwise, and I instinctively jerked my head against the hold. It didn't budge, but the hot flare grew slightly hotter.
He let go of my wrist with his other hand and began dragging me back towards the main pool with my hair knotted tightly in his fist. My legs flailed pointlessly behind me, and I could feel the rough stones bruising my back.
I hated this sensation. It was like walking barefoot on smooth stones by the river. They never broke the skin, but you could feel the damaging force nonetheless. It was like that, but over my entire back and legs, and I struggled frantically to find any purchase that might give me the chance to resist.
My heart rate skyrocketed as the gravity of the situation set in. I opened my mouth to shout for help, hoping Dani or Ellie could hear me if I were lucky. With an uncannily rapid response time, my assailant twisted his torso around and used the momentum to strike me across the face with an open-handed slap.
My vision blurred, and warm blood filled my mouth. I had bitten my tongue, unprepared for the sudden attack. I didn't even register the pain through the adrenaline, now fully inundating my system.
"Don't try it again. Even if you have friends here, I promise you don't want to bring them my way. It will end poorly." the man warned.
"O-okay," I managed to stutter out, unwilling to jeopardize my friends with a threat like that. I didn't doubt that he would be willing to resort to any means necessary. He said it so matter-of-factly that it felt like he was discussing swatting an annoying bug.
He nodded brusquely. "We're here, anyway."
I felt the grip on my hair first tighten, then release, as he swung me like a sack of unwanted refuse into the steaming pool.
The overly hot water burned my face as I floundered to right myself. After an instant of disorientation, I caught my bearings and took in my surroundings. I was floating roughly in the middle of the main pool, in front of the Obsidian Shard. I was just deep enough that I could barely touch the bottom of my tip-toes.
I now had a clear view of the three speakers I had accidentally been eavesdropping on. They all looked pretty mundane, if I was being honest. Or at least two of them did. Like office workers that were on vacation from their tedious job and shitty boss, simply trying to relax and enjoy a nice soak in the springs.
There were two men and a woman, not counting what I assumed was either a bodyguard or mercenary of some kind, given his demeanor. The woman had black hair bound up tightly to keep it out of the water. She had a smile on her face, but it didn't reach her eyes. She was wearing what looked like a one-piece black bathing suit. She was quite attractive in another setting, but right now, all I could feel was dread.
"How nice of you to join us," she said warmly. "I'll admit I didn't expect to run into anyone here, but it isn't beyond expectations for others to be using this fine facility." Her casual tone in this situation made my blood run cold. This was someone who was used to violence to achieve their ends. No average person would react in such a relaxed fashion to a teenage boy being assaulted like this.
She gave me a calculating look. "However, I do wonder what kind of life you've led to end up here so early. My name is Sarai, and these are my coworkers Gaelan and Adrien." She gestured to the two men spread out along the pool's edge.
"Pleasure to meet you," said Gaelan, who appeared to be the owner of the deep voice. He had glossy blond hair that hung down to his shoulders. He had classic good looks, with chiseled features and bright blue eyes. He gave me a disarming smile that I assumed melted most people he encountered.
Adrien, who I assumed must be the owner of the mean voice, just gave a dismissive wave and continued observing the situation calmly.
Sarai ignored him, continuing her introduction, "Our esteemed guard here, who you've already met, prefers to go unnamed. It's part of his clan policy, I'm afraid. Who might you be, and why are you here?" Her last line rang out coldly, in sharp juxtaposition to her early welcoming tone.
I considered, weighing my options. On one hand, I might be able to bullshit my way out of it, but it could backfire if they caught me in a lie. On the other hand, if I was honest about my situation, it was all too likely they might know who I was by virtue of association with Kiriel or Sula.
Alas, my choice was stripped from me.
"Why bother with the nice guy act when we can just tear it out of him," Adrien sneered. "Since we're here, we might as well get the most bang for our buck."
He was slender, with angular features that made him look like he hadn't had a good meal in a long time. He had close-cropped black hair that gave him a vaguely military look. He reached over to a belt by the pool's edge and released a pokemon in a red beam of light. I noticed there was another ball, as well.
I felt the sliver of hope I had to talk my way out of the situation extinguish as the beam dispersed, revealing a humanoid pokemon with yellow fur and a white mane ringing its neck. The Hypno looked at me as one might while grading a poorly written paper.
Adrien gestured to me flippantly with an apathetic wave of his hand. "Do your thing. He's a fucking teenager. It should be pretty easy to get it out of him. We're here in the middle of nowhere, so who gives a fuck about collateral damage. Just ensure he doesn't void in the pool if you break him. I hate it when that happens. Stupid fucking bodily functions."
The Hypno nodded, and I saw Sarai and Gaelan look away, but neither protested. I tried to catch their eyes, but it was to no avail. They didn't seem like trainers, and they looked uncomfortable at the presence of the notoriously hostile-to-humans pokemon.
Or maybe Adrien's casual mention of breaking people warranted their avoidance? It was difficult to tell, considering the large number of morally questionable activities in the last five minutes that had gone overlooked for one reason or another.
The guard didn't even look at me, preferring to stare off into the distance. I could tell he felt indifferent. Just another job. I could respect that, though.
I felt nothing but derision for Sarai and Gaelan, however. I couldn't stand people who relied on others to do the unsavory parts of a task. At least he and Adrien were ready to get their hands dirty.
The Hypno turned towards me, and I started flapping my arms to get away, but I felt myself restrained by a cocoon of incorporeal force that only gripped tighter the more I resisted.
I slumped, recognizing the futility of a mere human trying to resist a powerful psychic pokemon. The sheen of energy lifted me slightly out of the water. Just enough that I wouldn't drown if I lost consciousness, I supposed.
"Wait, I'll tell you whatever you want to know! I promise! I'm just traveling to Vermillion with my friends. You didn't even give me a chance to explain myself," I pleaded in desperation. I felt pathetic at my begging, but I knew I didn't want this pokemon in my head, no matter what.
Adrien laughed in what I could only label as disbelief. "Why bother? People lie all the time. Even if you talked, it's not like we could trust whatever you told us. Besides, we have no idea how much you heard. It's nothing personal, kid. You're just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Hypno, do your thing."
A deadened voice rang out in my head, "Do not resist. You have no chance, but I would prefer not to break the mind of one so young. You could have potential, yet."
I instantly felt a spike of something foreign jab into my head, and a splitting headache made itself known. I grunted, unwilling to give them the satisfaction of knowing how much damage they were doing.
I closed my eyes, trying to summon up the fleeting sensation of the dark type-energy I had been working with all day. It was tentative but still there. As soon as I had the barest of grips on it, I suffused it in a burst through my entire body, envisioning the hold on me weakening.
It worked because I felt the restraints on me slacken, and my body fell limply into the water below. But only for an instant, as I immediately felt the hold on me tighten and lift me back up. The mind-spike didn't come, though. I hung, suspended, and utterly at the mercy of my captors.
I saw Adrien looking at me in newfound interest. "That's a neat trick. Ultimately ineffective, but neat nonetheless. But how long can you do it for? His hollowed face broke out into a menacing smile. "Let's find out, shall we?"
I gulped, fearing what was to come.
The next few minutes went by in a haze. Lift me up. Stab me with psychic energy. Panic, and dark energy my way out. A simple process. At least, that's what I assumed Adrien's plan was.
It was ironic, really, because I had figured out that the stress of the situation was the only thing fueling my ability to break free. If Hypno just stopped and interrogated me with mundane methods like fingernail pulling or the like, there was very little I could do. Ona wasn't kidding when she said that dark type-energy was generated from trauma.
It wasn't like this wasn't working, either. I was having a difficult time breathing through the repeated submersions every time I broke through the hold, and I was coughing up heaving lungfuls of water whenever I had a chance. Dark spots flitted along the edge of my vision as my oxygen level dropped lower and lower.
As if arriving at the same conclusion, Adrien finally held up his hand to halt the Hypno, who let me drop unceremoniously back into the water. "This isn't working. Let's change tactics."
I scrambled to get a lungful of breath in before something else happened. My limbs were going numb, and my mind was having a difficult time registering things through the instinctive terror I felt. It's like my brain was processing everything in slow motion. It was all I could do to stay conscious.
"You," he gestured to the guard. "Do your thing. It looks like he's having a tough time breathing, so just pull him over to the edge and keep him on the edge of consciousness until he passes out. It'll be easier for Hypno to rip it out of him like that."
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"Hell," he laughed, a cruel, biting thing. "It would've been easier to do that from the start. Just less fun."
The guard nodded wordlessly and jumped into the pool without hesitation. He was much taller than me, so he could easily walk to my location without resorting to undignified doggy paddling. Once again, he grabbed me by the hair and towed me over to the pool's edge, where it was shallower. Once he found a location that seemingly met his purposes, he moved to straddle me, giving him excellent leverage over my torso.
I was far too weak to resist, although I could feel myself whimpering against my will at the brutality of it. In this position, all he had to do was lean forward, and the weight of his torso would keep me under the water with minimal expenditure on his part. I couldn't help but admire his efficiency, even as I was horrified at what it was being applied to.
Just before my head was completely immersed in the water, I managed to belt out the loudest scream I could in the forlorn hope someone might hear.
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Dani was having the best day. She had slept wonderfully, the nightmares usually plaguing her nowhere to be found, and she had awoken feeling brighter and more rested than she had in weeks. She was taking a break from the novel she had borrowed from Ona and was thoughtfully recounting her day in the peaceful afternoon light.
Breakfast had been delivered right to their door, and she and Ellie had shared a delicious meal of various veggies and meats. The food was paired with a well-made green tea that had left her feeling bright and energized.
Dani had to admit green tea was growing on her after Mare's constant discourse on the competition, or lack thereof, between tea and coffee. Before this trip, she had bolted down instant coffee in the mornings and avoided tea entirely. Now, however? She wasn't sure she could even drink coffee in the mornings after Mare's anti-coffee campaign.
After the lovely breakfast, they simply wandered around the facility, exploring what they felt they could get away with without upsetting the proprietress.
Naturally, they had nearly immediately run into Ona, briefly chatting with her before she directed them to where she housed basic amenities for female patrons, such as pumice stones, nail polish, and various scented oils. The inn-keep had been surprisingly warm and friendly to Dani, although she still displayed a pointed coldness towards Ellie after her numerous faux paus the previous evening.
Dani had never been very interested in that kind of thing, but Ellie's excitement for cosmetics had been overwhelming, and she had found herself roped into the other girl's pace. They had gathered quite the assortment of supplies and retreated to their room to use them.
Ellie had taken the opportunity to thoroughly debride Dani's calloused feet, although even the compassionate girl had been unable to contain her disgust at their sorry state. Hours later, and what felt like pounds of dead flesh lighter, Dani still felt embarrassed whenever she thought about the beginning of their spa day.
After the first painful process, Ellie skillfully painted both of their toenails before moving on to their hands, repeating the same thorough ministrations. The process took much longer than Dani had expected, but Ellie seemed to only accept perfection regarding style. She seemed pleased with the eventual results.
Dani was, too, although she was reluctant to admit it. She had painted her own nails once, maybe twice, but it had been the awkward work of a teenager unused to such a thing. Both instances had occurred during sleepovers, and the work had been tarnished due to the sheer amount of laughter present. It was hard to paint while giggling, obviously.
Clearly, Ellie was cut from a different cloth, and both of their nails were pristinely painted with immaculate attention to detail. The girl obviously took spa days seriously and took great pride in maintaining a polished appearance.
Dani hadn't realized how much Ellie cared about this kind of thing and was impressed at how stoically the other girl had adapted to the significant changes traveling through the wilderness offered. It wasn't that easy to suddenly turn your lifestyle upside down.
Ellie had chosen a muted forest green, which paired nicely with her red hair and green eyes. For Dani, she had selected a deep purple that bordered on black. She had said that it matched her personality, whatever that meant. Either way, Dani was more than satisfied with the intense look. She couldn't help but hope that Mare might notice it, too.
Following the nail painting, they had been gifted with another identical meal that went down quickly. After lunch, Dani decided to join Mare and his team in their training. She tried to convince Ellie to join them, but the other trainer had opted out, saying, "It's wrong to ruin a perfectly good rest day with training." Ellie had ignored anything else she had to say and had retired back to their room for a nap.
As for the training, Dani had learned a lot. She had been under the impression that she had been approaching training seriously, but watching Larvitar heartlessly spray Eon with sickening force convinced her otherwise.
Thinking about the sheer quantity of raw muscle tissue exposed with each strike revolted her, even now. None of her Pokemon had a self-healing ability like Eon, so it took a lot of work to keep training to such a degree. She doubted they would be interested in such an approach even if they did.
Over the last week, Mare had advised her to tailor her training routine to lean into her pokémon's strengths. For Beedrill and Scyther, that meant working on raw speed and power. In Geralt's case, that meant working on his ability to channel fire type-energy, considering the impacts of aging on his mobility. Venonat was working on expanding the intensity and quantity of the spores she could emit and working on her psychic type-energy generation and expenditure.
She had Geralt and Venonat join Nana in his earnest efforts to heat up the shrine. Scyther and Beedrill were sentenced to a series of fast-paced spars, where the goal was to work on their close-quarters combat and sheer force generation.
For herself, she joined Mare through several rotations between waterfall, chilled pool, and hot pool. She had been unable to discern what exactly he was trying to do, but she tried her best to duplicate it in her own way.
Mare's convoluted explanation about the weird energy leaving her the previous night had left her more confused than anything. Still, she had concluded that all she had to do was think about dark things in the hope of duplicating the phenomenon.
So, she had thought about death.
The feeling of loss when she first found her father's lifeless body after arriving home from school. The hot tears of rage and impotence that had dripped down her face at the realization there was nothing that could be done.
The sense of impending grief she felt when thinking about how most of her team had only a few short years to live. How she would see them grow old and whither in a mere season or two, their lifeless husks passing on to the next life, wherever that might be.
She even thought about Mare's story and the massacre he had witnessed in Hoenn. There was no shortage of things to think about, and she let herself sink deeper and deeper into it. It had been oddly cathartic in a twisted way.
Her efforts had paid off, and in just a few moments, she had been able to circulate something foreign within her system. It wasn't quite like Mare described, but it was close enough. The most significant difference she noticed was when she let it flow through her body. He described it as something raw or visceral, but the best thing she could come up with was that it was like ice clogging up her veins and coating her skin.
The energy had made her feel so numb and disconnected that she couldn't even feel the cold surrounding her. It was disconcerting, but ultimately only harmful if she made it a common thing to bask in cold water, which she had zero intention of doing.
After joining for around an hour, she had excused herself and her team, although she attempted to continue circulating the newfound energy. She found it simple to do so. It wasn't that she didn't want to train, but she believed that training opportunities were common, whereas leisure was not. She had snagged a book from the inn lobby and retreated to her room to find a cozy spot to get into it.
When she returned to her room, she was surprised to see Ellie still deep in her nap, lying in a puddle with her pokemon cutely wrapped around her. Dani had carefully crept to a chair by the window and opened a book to enjoy light reading.
Although she was currently taking a break, the book she was reading had so far been quite enjoyable. Ona only owned romance novels, so the options were limited. She had tried to choose the least smutty-looking one, knowing that Ellie would never let her live it down if she brought back a book covered with depictions of semi-nude, muscular men.
She had selected a book titled Fervor in Fuchsia. The cover was ostensibly covered with fuchsias. It was a little on the nose but striking regardless. It was apparently written by an author from Johto who had visited Fuchsia and become enraptured with the city, eventually moving there. Or at least that's what the back flap suggested.
It chronicled the love story between a teacher who adamantly refused to do anything with pokemon and a professional trainer he fell in love with.
It was quite cute, and Dani effortlessly fell into the trance-like state she associated with a well-written book. It didn't do anything special and followed similar trope lines as most romance novels, but she enjoyed the simplicity of it.
She guessed it likely wasn't a trendy book, given that it followed a non-trainer as the main character. And not just a trainer that wasn't competitive, but one that actively went out of their way to avoid pokemon.
Although plenty of people didn't feel the need to train pokemon competitively, it had become such a massive part of the culture in Kanto that anyone who didn't at least attempt the circuit was viewed as something close to…incomplete? It was hard to find the proper term to fully convey the concept. The number of people that swore off pokemon completely was close to nil.
She was halfway through the book, and things were heating up. The book began slowly, but the characters had just passionately confessed their love to each other and were well on their way to consummating their 'forbidden relationship.' It was in flagrant violation of their respective families' wishes for them to avoid each other entirely, lest they end up broken and unhappy.
Dani suspected things were going to go poorly from here on out. Violent delights led to violent ends, after all. She was not a romance connoisseur, but any girl who had read more than a few romances could pick up on the trends. It was either happily ever after or happily never after.
As she settled in to enjoy the good part before things descended into tragedy, she heard something that caught her attention. She had recently heard some splashing and a female voice through the thin walls but had assumed it was just Mare talking to Ona about something.
That had been about fifteen minutes ago, and the voices had faded away in deference to the overwhelming sound of running water that permeated the building.
This, however, sounded like groaning, as if somebody was just waking up from their first hangover. Dani tried to ignore the irritating noise but was unable to do so. It was completely ruining the scene she was reading, and it was pissing her off to no end.
"Guess I gotta go tell Mare to shut the hell up," Dani muttered in annoyance. She stood up, carefully marking her book so she could return to it in a few minutes after she got this sorted out.
She grabbed her pokemon belt just in case, strapping it to her waist like usual. She snuck out of the room, making sure to open and close the door so as not to disturb Ellie's seemingly endless beauty sleep.
Right as she turned to make her way down the hallway, a harrowing scream rang out, easily penetrating the thin walls. The shrill sound burrowed into her eardrums painfully, and she winced at the abrupt shift from the previously peaceful setting. Down the hall from her, she saw Nana and Eon burst through the door to their room with Larvitar hot on their heels.
That must have been Mare, she realized. Concern rapidly replaced annoyance, and she started sprinting towards the main entrance to make it out into the garden area, where she thought the noise came from.
She glimpsed a flicker of movement through the mist as she ran past the large windows overlooking the inner courtyard. The visibility was limited, but she could make out what looked like a large man crouched over Mare in the shallow pool area. Her breath caught in her throat as she processed what was happening.
Dani stopped abruptly as she tried to formulate a plan to deal with the unexpected threat. At this point, Nana and Eon had quickly caught up with her. Eon must have helped Larvitar up on top of Nana; otherwise, his waddling gait would never have allowed him to cover this much ground.
In any other situation, the image might have been comical, but she was currently just happy for the support.
Before Mare's pokemon could make any rash decisions, she put a finger to her lips to silence them before the newcomers in the pool heard them. In a whisper, she said, "I have an idea, but you need to listen to me carefully. We don't have much time."
The trio got the message and looked up at her expectantly.
Dani turned to Larvitar, who looked up at her wide-eyed, loudly expressing concern for his adoptive father. "Hey, buddy. Your daddy is in trouble, and he needs your help. I saw your attacks earlier, and I think you're our best shot. I'm going to hold you up to the window, and I need you to take the guy hurting your dad out. In one shot, through the glass. We don't have much time. Can you do it?"
Larvitar didn't hesitate, immediately holding his arms up as if to say, "Pick me up, please."
Dani did just that, grunting as she braced to lift Larvitar high enough to get a clear shot.
Another garbled cry rang out weakly from the pool. Dani shakily held Larvitar up the window, hoping that whatever he did would have enough force to stop Mare's assailant. It would be enough if it was powerful enough to knock the man off Mare. That's all she needed from him.
Larvitar was silent with effort. An agonizingly slow moment passed as he struggled to build up enough pressure behind his attack. Finally, a sharp crack echoed across the space as the window shattered from the force.