~~~ Chapter 22 - Discharge ~~~
Subject: [CONFIDENTIAL] New Contract
To All P1 Research Staff,
We are pleased to announce that we have entered a long-term contract with a private partner. They have requested that we review the incident with Castelia City Gym Leader Alder’s late Volcarona, and have provided copies of all available samples and reports. If we are successful, we will be able to expand our presence, and show the world that we are a force for the good of all, pokemon and humans alike.
We are also pleased to announce that Doctor Anton Colress will be joining us to oversee this research project.
~~~
I was tense. The yellow sheep regarded me with its big, black eyes, its conical, black-striped ears lightly twitching. The shadows of the gym building encroached the large backyard lot. I lifted my right leg, setting it a bit wider than shoulder-width, and stretched a bit. The vibrations pulled. The sheep stood two feet taller than me, my eyes just below where its elongated neck jutted from the thing's shoulders. Juniper junior, hand on hip, stood behind her pokemon, her smile/mouth in an upward curve. Lanky and the professor-to-be spoke some last words. The silence between the two trainers told me that they’d reached some kind of amicable arrangement.
Abdomen twitching from under my battle-dress, I stepped forward. Internalized pressure from my expectations of the coming battle, my internal organs began to squeeze, bracing for impacts that were sure to come. Juniper spoke first, the world slowing under the bright sun. The red bauble on the yellow sheep’s tail began to glow.
“Ra—” I reached down, grabbing my leaves “—zor” the thrum in my abdomen became a dull hum “Le—” the movements of ampharos’ ears had gone small “—eaa—” two orbs of electricity about the size of my head floated out and down toward my position. The sheep’s head started to turn up to the sky. “—aff!” Lanky’s shout ended with drawl. I threw my leaves at the sheep’s center. The friction in the air sparked as they struck true. I stepped back, my internal vibrations quickening under the pressure of the two approaching electro balls. The dry barbs on my legs and tarsi pulled under the obscene charge of the air.
I jumped to my left, a piece of static shocking me as my antennae tapped each other. The air crackled as the two electric spheres passed by, jolting me with stray arcs as they passed. They hit the ground, popping like a water balloon. Arcs of lightning danced along the ground, my leg twitched, one last jolt of electricity from the spheres struck, traveling up my legs, causing my muscles to squeeze, the fuzzy barbs retracting by their very presence. A light seize, then the pulse diffused into my cufflinks.
I turned back. A giant layer of white fur was in my face. The barbs on my body all contracted at once as I was hit by the discharge of static. Under the pressure of the sheep and jolted, electrified spasms of my muscles, my blade arms folded back onto themselves and onto my thorax.
Sheer belly of an unsheared white and yellow sheep pushed me out of the ring and onto the ground. A final jolt surged through me, but all I saw was static. I tried to move my tongue. It was numb. My antennae twitched, not picking up vibrations but scents in the air. Nothing smelled burnt, and at least my muscles had gone numb. At the return of sun on my leaves, I knew the mass of sheep had completely rolled off me.
My antennae twitched erratically, reminders of my mistake. The silence turned into a steady ring. The moment I’d exited the ring, the vibrations in my abdomen had ceased.
My tongue still numb, vision softened and began to clear. Lanky had me in his arms. I flexed my leg. It twitched instead. The ringing shifted to white noise. I let my limbs hang limp. He opened my mouth and gave me some chunks of fruit, setting me down by a tree. The swadlies approached, circling around.
The ringing and noise in my audio centers cleared when I rose out of torpor. The internal pressure of my abdomen had ceased by the time I awoke, at least. Lanky was sitting next to me, resting in silence. The shadows of trees, gym, and surrounding fence-wall were elongated. Evening was coming, and dinner would be soon. I could taste the smell of nearby smoked leaves on my antennae as well. Leaf had apparently been made into electrified meat as well.
That first move had been a thunderwave mixed into discharge and electro balls. Low damage, just cause your opponent to seize. It was practically an insta-win for the clearly-more well-practiced sheep. Some moves from the games overlapped, but I couldn’t rely on just remembering a couple moves. Actual paralysis was no joke.
I opened my mouth, mostly to click in dissatisfaction, but Lanky had been ready, dropping a veggie in. I’m sure it would have tasted great, but my tongue still tingled. I extended my left arm. It extended fully, despite being slightly numb. I flexed my left leg. It responded. My right leg as well. Wobbling, I stood up. The swadlies had gotten rowdy, judging by the fact that they were drenched with water and Mienshao was practically juggling two of them. Leaf slept on the other side of Lanky’s lap. The involuntary twitching of his antenna said the rest.
Juniper had pulled out a laptop, her three pokemon continuing to mill around. Her full team wasn’t out to roam. With that much power, she had to have three more, right? Were they all birds? Is that why? The swadlies would probably panic in the presence of three fully-evolved birds. Though they'd already kicked a couple murkrow and even a few wingull out from building nests from the gym's backyard. To be fair, if she released three birds without any warning or warm-up time, panic feels like it would be a reasonable course of action for a bug.
Leaf’s blade arm was quite singed, burns following the veins of his leaves. My blades and legs had little pockmarks, but nothing that traced along like his. Had he tried to tank a direct hit? He looked a bit worse for wear than I felt, but only the smell of burns of leaves, with no marks on his abdomen as far as I could see, said he was fine. Lanky popped a piece of tomato chunk into the sleeper’s mouth. Given time, our salival digestives would dissolve and absorb any fruits or vegetables. This way, it was safe to feed Leaf despite his sleep. Though instead, Leaf would have to spit out seeds that would normally pass through. I speared a tomato from the sack, stuffing it in my mouth. The water inside exploded as I mashed it up. Tastes on my tongue were returning.
The first rule of any game with a ball was, well, “Don’t take your eyes off the ball.” The first rule of pokemon battles should probably be, “Don’t take your eyes off your opponent,” and that’s exactly what I did, and for that, I was mad. I would have to get a rematch later. Just doing that, and keeping my attention on my opponent, rather than their distractions, I’d last a lot longer. On the flipside, however, how do you avoid getting paralyzed by electricity? Well, actually fastening together my helmet would be a good start.
Two swadly were sitting in the tree behind me, having participated in their own water games with the samurott, judging by the wet splotches on the ground leading up to the tree. They’d dried off, at least from what I could see. Leaf sat up, his head swinging around a bit and antennae twitching. He pulled up one leg, then the other. Putting an arm down into the dirt, my cohort leavanny pushed, attempting to use their arm as a crutch/lever. His arm wobbled, then he collapsed to the ground. His own muscles were still healing from the effects of the fight. Lanky pulled the bug back to him, giving him another slice of tomato. Leaf accepted, not making to get up again. It was better to be hand-fed, wasn’t it?
Mostly recovered from that series of static zaps, I got up and walked to the door that led into the gym atrium. I had a full store of silk, and I was going to use it before dinner began. Walking across the ground, Juniper paused her typing. Samurott and the sheep were within a few feet of each other, which surprised me. Even so, the three pokemon watched as I wobbled forward.
On the inside, the door from the atrium to the backyard had a push-lever mechanism. On the outside, where I stood in front of the shut door, were standard non-mechanical handles. I stood straight up, reaching up to hook the fore of my arm around the U-shaped handle. I tried to pull, but my wobbly leg gave out on the dirt instead.
Juniper continued to relax in the shade, turning her head down. She was a bit far and her eyes blurry. The rhythmic typing had turned to a kind of sputtering. I ejected a thick line of silk and hooked it to the door handle and fused it together into a loop. With the better angle, I pulled. I had to use all of my small weight and leverage. As the door opened, Juniper had stopped all her typing, fake as it was. At first, the small tarsi on the bottom of my legs slipped, but the door opened. I took a couple steps. The door pulled a bit further.
Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.
The door swung open, and I lost my grip, legs sliding into it as I fell back. Recovering my standing, I got up and let go of my silk rope. The samurott had seen what I wanted, and held it open for me. Juniper was holding out a phone, pointing it at me. The ampharos seemed content to roll around.
I curtseyed for Juniper and her camera, as well as the samurott. The gentle waterdog towered over me, but gracefully held the door open using the spike on his head. Confident we weren’t about to have another spar before dinner, I went inside. Discovering that my silk was electrically-conductive fit on my priority list at just above, oh, I don't know, fighting moltres or reshiram fit. Not something I wanted to learn in the middle of a fight, at least. I’d say that was pretty low on the list of things I wanted to do. So, it really wasn’t an option to try unless I could get really creative. My mixture ready, I jumped up the tree and detached the silk rope from the branch, pulling it up as I proceeded with my work.
The door opened and shut multiple times, the swaddles filtering in one by one. I fused a piece of silk-rope to one end, then used the edge of my blade to scrape some of the sticky off. Fusing the bottom end of the new rope, the rest filtered in, getting ready for dinner. All the swaddles, Juniper and her three pokemon, Lanky, and Leaf walked in. Juniper’s pokemon took the wall adjacent to the exit. Juniper was pointing a phone at me as I worked from my branch. With the bottom end of the second rope attached together, I hooked the detached end of the fused ropes to the branch, dropping it down.
Jumping down, I inspected my handiwork. The center of the second rope only lightly stuck to the main, separating in the middle with ease, but the fused sections held firm. A couple more days, and I would have a full netting between the two sides. The rope’s lowest point drooped right below where my neck met my thorax. A bit too high for me to sit down on, but I could hang off it. I wrapped my arms around it, keeping my blades up. The hammock-to-be stretched a little, but didn’t snap. “Eea,” I chirped, satisfied. Lanky and Juniper came out with bowls of fruits and veggies, and a bowl of meat for the samurott.
I turned to the line of bowls set up. Leaf walked over. He was standing, but for a rather loose definition of “standing.” He wiggled right to his bowl, second from the end. I went to sit on his right. He tried to scoop, but his arm shook, spilling some on the ground. He was recovering from the paralysis, but it was too soon for him to eat on his own. Lanky brought out the last bowl, setting it down for the swadly on the end. I’d need to start naming them, but it was hard coming up with them. Bonk was eating next to us, unceremoniously scooping. A couple of the others had caught on to the better methods, and were spilling less. Leaf stared at the bowl, the scent of dejection rolling off. He desperately needed some help. The bowls were pretty small. At least, I could fit most of their contents in my mouth.
I picked up his bowl for him. Leaf reached out and rubbed my arm to stop me. Unfortunately, when the barbs in his hands rubbed against me, they didn’t pull inward. That is to say, he had no grip on me. When I didn’t take any of his veggies, he relented. I lifted up the bowl and he shoveled the food into his mouth, only spilling a few with my help.
With some food in my belly, I stood up and looked at the ampharos, its bowl empty as well. I clicked. The air had felt grey since that stupid loss. Losing sucks, and losing because you make two dumb mistakes felt worse. What’s the point of having a helmet if I’m not going to use it?
~~~
Kate Dean approached the door of the Castelia gym, bag on her shoulder. She had chosen to accept Alder’s gym badge; though for the last two weeks—despite how much she’d tried to convince herself otherwise—it hadn’t sat right with her to get the free pass. Commenters online had already been saying mean things about her, when she got her second badge. She’d worked hard to beat Clay! And well, if anyone found out how she received her Castelia badge, they might even say foul play was involved. The moment the volcarona’s death was announced, she felt the sharp pangs of guilt.
She shook her head at the front door. This wasn’t about other people, it was about proving to herself that she had what it would take. The front lights were off, indicating the closure. She took a breath and rang the buzzer, looking into the camera with a quick smile and wave in her black sundress.
There was a verbal buzz, then the door unlocked. Pulling it open, she went inside. To Kate’s left, the door was shut. No one would be in the building’s offices, at least. She walked to the right, navigating the small maze, getting a good dose of cherry in the air outside the women’s locker room. She opened the last door to the atrium, the massive room lit in red as an ampharos and leavanny both circled around the center, electricity cackling in the air, their trainers standing side by side, observing their combatants.
Neither trainer was shouting strategies or moves.
~~~
The ampharos was clearly leagues stronger than me, just like the volcarona. Juniper turned from petting her mienshao, observing me. She spoke to Lanky, who turned from his pokedex. Ampharos looked down at me, even as I stood as tall as I could. I gained a couple inches at best. The two trainers pulled out their pokeballs. The sheep’s excitement left a shocking taste in the air. The trainers let their hands drop to their sides. The wave of juniper’s soft arid scent hinting at a feel of anxietycuriosity and lanky’s general anxiety was ignored as amphy met my challenge. I walked to the challenger’s side of the arena, where it moseyed itself up to the opposite of the ring. It had been trained quite well if it knew the rules. Unfortunately for both of us, I was still guessing. I pulled my helmet down, attaching the clasp. Though it limited my vision, it also meant slightly less distractions.
The red orbs on its head and tail glowed. We circled each other in the large chalk ring. Both trainers drew close, but neither took a side. The front door of the battle hall opened, a girl in black, probably the same one from earlier stepped in.
Against electric types, I needed a better ranged attack than razor leaves, but I didn’t have any.
The beating of my heart and the passive vibrations in my abdomen slowed. I felt a pressure inside, and a light wind picked up, a flick of stray spark hit, denaturing a small piece of my leaf. Energy stores from the earlier sun were low. Without the lamps up above on, I would slow down before the fight was done. So the fight had to be quick. It had to be quick anyway, given the sheer power of its attacks. Sparks rolled off the sheep onto the ground, scattering about, transferring to the ground after hitting bits of dust and clay.
I gave the sheep a bow. It released three balls of electricity from its head, similarly sized as the ones from before. They spread apart, sizzling the air between them, drifting lower, zoning me to the end of the ring. My abdomen vibrated. I backed up several steps, before launching into a run at the rolling balls of death. I jumped, pulling in my legs to my abdomen. Leaf-cuffs of my knee-joints intercepted the brunt of stray shocks as I cleared them. The light in the sheep’s ruby was returning. I took a fast slash at its gut. The static on its fur arced along the veins of my leaves. I pulled back my blade, a large tuft of fur falling off and floating into the air. Waves of electricity shimmered down its fur. I hopped a couple feet back. Sparks from the first attack spattered in the periphery.
Vision obscured by the shining red glow my abdomen buzzed. Each new spark bled off like a shot from a gun, it ran towards the center of the ring. The air continues to crackle and cackle, the glow of its head emitting a circular wave of yellow and black. There was no evading this attack. Instead I ran at the sheep, clearing the waves of electricity rolling along the ground. I twisted my body, launching my helmeted head at its midsection. The red glow began again. My helmeted head rammed it in the chest, toppling my opponent, they cried in surprise. My antennae vibrated as it released its wave of static.
My leaves absorbed the bulk of its blow. I pushed up and tried to get off. A pressure on the back of my thorax. My visor full of fluff and the world was mute, I wasn’t going to move under its grip. Ready for the worst, I turned my blades in and gave it the best hug a bug could, waves of electricity scorching my leaves and spasming my muscles. It tried to pull me off, but my blades were too deep. A moment later, I exploded off the sheep. Lanky ran after me as I fell limply into the waiting branches of a tree.
~~~
Aurea Juniper and Artemus, the kid she'd met that morning, recalled their pokemon into their pokeballs. Flashy, Kate thought. Aurea released a pig-like pokemon with a wavy, dreamlike tassel extending from its head.
“Sorry.” Juniper said, finally acknowledging her presence in the room, lightly grabbing the pokemon’s floating appendage and the other trainer’s hand. “Teleport!” she shouted, leaving her alone with the pokemon who’d watched the whole spectacle.
The other trainers gone, Kate tested and then sat on a silk swing, left to make friends with pokemon she’d never met. She released her own skorupi. The trainers trusted their pokemon to get along alone, so she figured it would be no more harm to let some of her own out to roam. The little scorpion pokemon immediately dug itself under the root of a nearby tree. Which was fine by her.
A samurott and a mienshao traded playful blows with each other. Another, albeit wobbly, leavanny approached and sat at the trunk of the tree upon which she swang. The least she could do was babysit for a bit. One by one, she released the rest of her pokemon, watching how they’d behave in the presence of these strangers.