~~~ Chapter 46 - Skirmish ~~~

I couldn't see, but I could feel the air whizzing past my antennae and arms. I held my arms out, pushing as hard as I could, against the rushing, arresting my fall. It seemed to work, as my battle-dress also provided ample wind resistance. It wasn't enough to completely arrest my fall, as I still tumbled to the ground. But it was an unfair, dirty shot. Rolling on the ground, I could hear Lanky shout. Dawn's laying on her back, seemingly still passed out. Lanky had gotten up from his position on the bleachers, but I was opposite him, the alakazam was in the way, between Lanky and I.

Why would it attack me?

Did it see the dreams we were in? No, probably not. At least, not until Dawn and I were pulled to the same nightmare together. Should I attack the alakazam back? No. It was just a misunderstanding. It was just protecting its trainer.

Who was asleep on the ground, still. I could hear Lanky shouting, but the alakazam was ignoring him, staring instead at me. She would awaken, at any moment, and put this whole thing to rest. Or at least, that was what I had hoped, as I put my arms on the ground, standing up. Her pokemon didn't like that very much, apparently, considering how a small, purple orb was now standing in front of it.

I wasn't about to let myself be bullied by the psychic simp, however. Like earlier in the morning, I pulled my own energy, just a small amount, really. I must have been out of range of its more potent psychic attacks, given the Alakazam released the small orb glowing with purple poke-mana. I dodged the first one. I ran horizontally, trying to stay out of range. It would be a risk—if Dawn really was stuck in the nightmare realm, she wouldn't be out of it until either Darkrai let her out (assuming he could…), or Dawn learned her own way out of nightmares. Another series of the purple bullets launched themselves at me.

Was he even aiming? I asked myself, as another series launched. I'd pulled my own mana, the neutral version, with low-heat, into my mouth. Like before, it was viscous and chunky. And difficult to hold, while running in circles. Blobs of purple embedded themselves in the ground at my feet. I pulled the blob of pokemana energy to the front of my mouth, then bit into it, splitting the ball with a loud CRACK!, which echoed, reverberating across the gym walls, bouncing them off. The alakazam just shook its head. Figures. I thought.

I had only been a leavanny for a couple of months, if that. Dawn's alakazam had fought and won against world-class opponents.

I needed practice. A couple of the blots of energy had dissolved from my attempt, the leftover pokemana dissolving inside my body. Regardless, the ground beneath me was still littered with the "spent" bullets answering the question of whether alakazam was aiming. The answer was a stark not for you. All the orbs beneath my feet exploded at once, releasing mind-deafening blasts. I tried to direct what mana I could scrounge up, and take a risk—putting it all up into my head, even as I ran, dodging between the explosions, their sounds successfully reducing my mind—I had no place left to go but directly into the alakazam.

If Dawn was still knocked out and her alakazam wasn't going to let up, I ran at him. Away from the purple mines that had been laid, I jumped, I raised my right blade, stabbing down, targeting the alakazam's shoulders. As I did, I had managed to draw a tiny bit of blood, but what should have been a devastating blow, my momentum was halted, and it was like cutting through frozen butter. The alakazam just stared at me. I could feel its presence trying to pass over me, to push on my body, but it was slipping. Its grip wasn't as strong as before. I was managing to resist its mental grasp. A smell of tobacco had entered the room.

I kicked off the psychic monster, pulling out my blade, hoping that would at least give it some pause, or a moment to consider it might have made a mistake. But no, what happened instead, was that my little papercut into its shoulder? It instantly healed up, as if the alakazam said that I wasn't even worthy of injuring it. But, I did disorient the pokemon enough that he didn't have free purchase to launch me into the air. So, that was something.

"Leah!" Lanky called my name. "Return!" he had said. I stared down the alakazam. Who stared back. Then, with a huff, Dawn's unconscious body and bag both floated up. She slightly slipped before being caught again and raised up. Alakazam reached out, touching her limply hanging hand. The pair of them blinked from the gym. Lyra and her meganium stood at the primary entrance to Lenora's atrium, Lyra covered in the scents of strong cigar, scent otherwise masked. The fake-detective was nowhere to be seen.

Just protecting their trainer.

I ran over next to Lanky, who was midway through the gym floor to me, my pokeball in his hand. He put it back on his belt, before picking me up with a twirl. Lyra and her meganium were stepping in. In her hand, was a long badge, one that looked like a book-mark. She really smelled like cigar smoke. Lyra and the meganium surveyed the room, using my name multiple times, talking to Lanky, asking questions, lanky answering with short, one-word answers as I sat in his arms. A man with sunglasses and a jump-suit peeked his head in the room. He had two water bottles on him, tossing one to lanky, who caught it with his left one, and the other to Lyra, who just gave him a wave.

Lanky popped the cap off the bottle and gave me a sip of the water.

~~~

As the humans had their own brief, soft-toned conversations, Lanky constantly glanced at me, before I got bored and hopped on to the ground, exploring the room a bit. I could have used some more practice, but was worried that we would need to leave to try and search for the alakazam. Minutes of conversation later, Lyra had apparently convinced Lanky and I to have a go at it with her meganium. I knew this was coming, eventually. Lyra's meganium was tall- more than twice my height, just to hop on its back. Walking up to her, I gave her a light poke.

Meg, I decided to call her, her entire body just bristled with muscle. She looked round and soft, but if a pokemon could have a hard body, meg was no slacker. "Leah!" Lanky grunted out, his face flush. Meg's eyes and scent faced me with slight curiosity. I wasn't about to agitate her. I couldn't even give the alakazam more than a second's pause. Could I even draw blood? Highly doubted that I could.

Lyra moved, putting a finger over her mouth, pulling up the detective's briefcase that was left on the floor, as Lanky was flipping it back and forth in his hands, talking with her, practically gasping for air. When I realized he wasn't choking out, I turned back to the meganium.

"Leea", I tried, drawing a glance from Lyra, as she thumbed through the contents, making ruffling sounds with the various papers.

C'mooon. Meg stood up, wrapped me with her vines, then just threw me across the room. It was, actually, a softer toss than Dawn's alakazam had tossed me. Did I want to solve problems? I held out my arm-blades, using them to direct the flow, slowing me down as I landed on the ground. That time, I just had to bend at the leg-joints. No rolling across the floor. Did I want to go out, solve crimes, and help Dawn? Meg was walking to the center of the ring. To be frank? No, I didn't really want to. Not any more, anyway.

Well, not her problems, anyway. I wasn't about to run into Giratina's realm.

Not of my own free will, at least. If Dawn wanted to follow Lanky and I around and help Leaf and I train? I wouldn't say no. But no way in hell was this bug willingly walking into that mountain again. With the help of morally dubious celebi or not, I vowed. I want the payment up front, at least. Dawn didn't even have the courtesy to give me any of the conditioner or honey.

Meg and I met in the center of the ring, Lanky holding my pokeball, as Lyra just ignored us, sifting through the trove of papers the faux-detective had left behind. Had she known it was a different person? Little… particles were falling out from behind the red and white flowers which wrapped around and adorned Meg's neck.

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I hopped back. A few of the particles had hit my arm, but I had managed to jump away in time. Lanky talked to Lyra, walking over to my side of the ring. I needed to learn more human language. Tone just wasn't going to cut it. Lanky and Lyra exchanged words, before Lanky finally took a breath, deciding to just watch us from the sidelines.

~~~

"Are you sure?" Art asked Lyra, rubbing his neck. He was there, in the Nacrene gym, but another part of him was back at Castelia, standing next to Aurea as they both stared at their pokemon, Leah dancing and leaping through a minefield of electricity.

"Yes." Lyra said, not even looking up. "Let them play. Meg is… not an average pokemon. She was top tier even as a little chikorita."

Art rolled his eyes. He'd heard it before.

"Meeeg!" Meg brayed from the center of the gym's battle-floor. Though, his eyebrows did perk up.

"That's right, hon! Be soft and try not to kill the bug, please!" Lyra said, picking through the briefcase' papers, practically humming to herself.

"Maaae," Lyra's pokemon responded from the center of the atrium. Leah jumped away even further. He did have to admire Lyra's sheer confidence.

~~~

Figures—I was being toyed with. Which was to be expected, really, but after I had the fight with the ampharos, and after I wasn't immediately stomped by the alakazam, I had been feeling pretty good, and was hoping I had managed to skip the line in terms of strength, but, well, I hadn't skipped quite as far ahead of the line as I thought. There were windows in the room, but the sun wasn't direct. I wasn't getting any boost from the sun. Not unless I wanted to experiment more with my pokemana.

~~~

"Are you gonna take the title they gave you on TV, Burgh?" Lyra asked Art, reshuffling the papers and putting them back into the briefcase.

"Do I have any other choice?" Arty rebutted. Leah was running around the room, trying to fling leaves at Meg. Each and every one bounced off a dome of light. Meg sat down on her haunches, before lying down and curling their head in, as if to go to sleep. Leah hadn't caused the pokemon to move a single inch. Leah was darting around the room, flinging leaves at it, to no avail.

"Hah! I suppose you don't," Lyra said.

Art still had his eyes on the lopsided battle. "Do you ever give commands during fights?" Arty asked.

"I haven't given Meg a command in a fight for nearly ten years now." Lyra said.

"What!?!" he asked.

"Basic strategy," she said, as if it answered his question. When Artemus didn't respond, she continued: "Look kid, I don't have the patience to tutor you on all this stuff. I've got a lot going on right now. I'm studying for my PhD in archaeology, and two hours ago I just broke up with my boyfriend who's already moved their shit out of the house—" She paused—"and not only that, but I'm going to leave town and head back to Opelucid city. I'm leaving the gym."

Art's heart sunk at that last bit. Seeing how well Meg was meting her power out to keep from hurting Leah had given him hope that they could get at least a couple weeks' worth of practice. Leah was improving—fast. Leah had parked herself between Lyra and the meganium, and was standing still. Similar to how she was standing earlier that morning. He smiled as a breeze picked up in the closed-off room. He frowned as he noticed the vine Leah was standing over. Burgh wanted to shout. But, instead he clutched Leah's ball, ready to throw it before his pokemon got seriously hurt.

Lyra chuckled.

~~~

Meg really was curled up, as if to say I wasn't even worth the time to play. Now, that just… wasn't fair! If you're in a mutually-agreed skirmish and the opponent mocks you by lying down as you're trying to have some fun, it's okay to get a little experimental. At least, that's what I told myself. I ran around, positioning myself between the single set of bleachers and Meg. I pulled the mana in, spread my legs apart, bracing myself, then spread the mana through my arms as much as I could, pushing it forward, as it rolled like waved in the ocean against my limbs. My abdomen hummed, it was quiet, and it was soft, but I pressed, and I continued to press.

A soft wind kicked up. The meganium's antennae were all that I could see, she didn't even bother to turn her head to face me! Oh, that made me so mad. I pressed harder, and the wind emitting from my body picked up, before a flash of green shot out, "shink!" it hit the dinosaur's light-dome. I continued pressing the poke-mana. Another shot out, then two more, lighting up the screens with a "Shoink! Shink! Sheenk!" a final four shot out. "Shinkshinkschinkshink"

That took most of my mana, but it didn't even penetrate the barrier. Underneath my feet—was a vine. I was upside down. A moment later, my face was in the dirt.

What the fuck.

~~~

"Hey Lenora." Lyra said as the gym leader entered the atrium, surveying the skirmishers.

"Did the detective and Dawn get the answers they wanted?" Lenora asked, frowning as she caught a whiff of the fading scent of cigar smoke off the legendary trainer.

"Don't know. I didn't get back from talking to Looker until after Dawn's psychic connection was broken" Lyra said, looking at Burgh, who did his best to keep his poker face in front of the intimidating gym leader. Lyra was supposed to have been watching the whole thing.

Lenora raised her eyebrow. "I'm sorry?" the gym leader asked.

Art spoke up. "Leah and Dawn apparently fell asleep. Leah woke up first, but Dawn's alakazam looked like it wasn't too happy about it. But it wouldn't let me get close enough to recall Leah."

"When I got in, the alakazam picked Dawn up and teleported away with all her stuff," Lyra said, shrugging.

Lenora crossed her arms, then pinched the bridge of her nose. "Let me get this straight."

~~~

We were out front of the gym again, on the street of Nacrene City. Rolling and flashing in the light in Lanky's hand was Lenora's bookmark-looking badge. Lyra had tossed Lanky a briefcase and a pair of keys. While we were on the front porch of the gym, Lanky gave me another sip of water, which I accepted. The dream that I'd had implied that I should have expected two things: First, for the three of us to basically just sit in the gym for weeks as Leaf and I were ground to a pulp, or in Lenora's library as Lanky tried to teach me human words.

But apparently Lyra had enough cachet to just… Not? I mean. Lanky had let Leaf out of his pokeball, deciding it wasn't worth the risk, leashing the poor bug up as we traveled through town. Together, the three of us walked through the city with a passing leisure, as Lyra and Lenora had apparently kicked us out? At least, that's what I could glean from the increasing scent of cortisol from Lenora and her hushed, yet stern tone.

The gym leader's hand had wavered over her pokebelt, before she glanced at Lyra's meganium. The "conversation" ended, then Lanky, Leaf and I found ourselves on our way to Lyra's townhome. The midday sun was so excellent that the world around Leaf and I just seemed to slow down the longer we were under. Lanky didn't do a half-bad job of keeping up, either.

~~~

The first thing that entered Dawn's senses was the sense of honey in the air. The next, was the sense of her alakazam, occasionally sending out the gentlest, anxiety-ridden impulses against her mind. She sensed him across from her bed, meditating on the ground. Pip and the togetic rustled, indicating that her alakazam had done as had been trained.

It had taken her a long time. A surprisingly long time to train the alakazam to follow these instructions. Not being a psychic like he was, there was an inherent… feeling of superiority from his default mindset. Why bother? He'd ask with his attitude alone. Dawn sat up, smiling as the wavering in the impulses disappeared, and were instead replaced with his characteristic confidence.

Did pokemon get psychiatrists? She wondered to herself, wiping off the cold sweat that had apparently accumulated. She looked down at her pillow, pushing off the blankets. The nightmares she'd been locked in were already fading. Her mouth still felt strange, but she knew it was the effects of feedback. It would fade over the next couple days. He'd been a lot more gentle, after she'd been stuck in the hospital the last few days. A lot less resistive to her wishes.

She'd wondered if it was exposure to some magic of the red chains, or a while from their pokeballs, and were themselves resting on the ground. Sweating, and tired as hell, she ignored the impulse to open the blinds and bask in the sun as much as she could, instead she rolled to the edge of the bed, pumped the room's air conditioner up as far as it would go, and fell back to sleep. This time, her dreams were far, far more pleasant.

"Alakazam," she said, "teleport Pip and Toge somewhere safe for a few hours so they're not stuck inside while I sleep." He was reluctant to leave her, but eventually teleported, taking the whole team she'd brought to Unova out to some place he'd determined would be safe. She wasn't worried about her team. Not really. But she'd begun to feel a little guilty about how much time they were being left in their pokeballs, or trapped in her presence.

Dawn had, the entire time she was in the hospital, recovering from her near-fatal distortion sickness, she had itched to get back out there and fight. And despite living through the worst nightmares she'd ever had—for the first time in several years, Dawn felt like it would be all right. Sure, she wasn't fully ready to let the damn break, to let her own hyperfocus break. But the first rays of light were peeking over her own horizons.

She just had to remember not to eat all the honey.