~~~ Chapter 56 - Intimidated ~~~
I tried to force a few leaves in my mouth, but they just would not dissolve. Not that I could tell, anyway: my tongue was numb. The waiter came, and removed our bowls of gross juice from the table. No one tried to force Leaf to eat, at least. I picked at the bowl of salad momentarily, before a new bowl, one with what seemed to be water, was placed in front of us. I drank that up, swallowing whatever was remaining in my mouth.
It was a while of us two just sitting there, under our dinner sunlamps, relaxing, when the numbness in my stomachs began to fade, and sound and scent began to return, if a bit muted. There were no clocks on the walls. No moving arms to tell how much time had passed. Not that I would be able to read it, mind. A red light flashed at Lanky and Kate's table. Lanky picked up the device and pressed a button, called out Leaf's name, "Fidget." Leaf jumped up and joined our trainer at his side.
Lanky called my name, though his voice was soft, almost trembling. I stood up, and waltzed over to him as Leaf disappeared in a flash of red light. Lanky took my shoes off, setting them down on his chair. Muffled, though I could hear Kate say softly "Good Luck!" He gave her a thumbs-up, then wiped his forehead with a napkin.
I looked up, noted him poking the pokeball on his waist. I could hear him mouthing, "sorry", before I, too, disappeared in a flash of light. I could hear a few shouts from the fight, but I didn't actually get to hear what was going on, despite the muffled sound of the announcer, the speakers bouncing around managed to come through both my numbness and the pokeball.
"The contestant and Chili have agreed—submission, recall, or ring out. Two pokemon versus two pokemon!" Which was a relief for me. I wasn't too worried. The announcer continued: "Will this be a routine battle, or will it be a show!?! We all know Chili always aims to please!"
Then it hit me. The dude's title was chili, as in, chili pepper. He had red hair. He's the fire-type member of the Striaton Gym leaders! I thought, kicking myself for letting the detail slip. Which meant… Which meant, the numbness of the chocolate would come in handy.
There was a minor gasp from the speakers. "Artemus' Leavanny pins Chili's rockruff to the ground with complete ease!"
As expected, I thought to myself. If Leaf could pin me down, a stupid ground-type puppy should be a cakewalk for him. Obviously. How I wished I could have been outside the pokeball to watch, though. He was probably riding high. I relished the feeling, the nostalgia of pinning that first rockruff to the ground with such ease.
"It seems, Artemus' reputation precedes him! Chili recalls Rockruff and… replaces her with… Arcanine!" The announcer practically spat that last word. "Looks like the two have agreed to put on a show! Artemus recalls his first leavanny, aaand"
Wait wha—I couldn't even finish the thought before I found myself under the bright stage lights, stared down by a massive arcanine, their fuzzy mane waving in the nonexistent wind, staring me down. Did it expect to intimidate me, a bug? Well, it fucking worked on me.
"--anny for his other leavanny! Leah! The dancer everyone's seen. Ah! I see now! We were mistaken. Artemus actually, double-checking these notes, it seems, already has one badge, the Nacrene City badge! Simisear would be too easy, and we're told Leah is quite the capable gal! How will she and Artemus handle this?"
I could hear quieter tones of Lanky speaking, but clearly not to me. Chili's mouth moved, across from me. I barely steel myself in time, Arcanine turns into a complete blur before me, blasting not into my frontside, but slams into my back, knocking me to Chili, three fourths across the ring. Arcanine was massive, easily more than twice my height and mass! The damn dog could probably carry adult humans! Bigger than fucking wolves! How the hell was I supposed to handle that!?!
"String Shot!" Lanky said.
"Ember!" Chili said.
Wait, that's like, tier one fire!?! I thought. It was a performance. They just wanted something interesting. For the dinner guests! And if it used a strong move, I'd probably just die. I thought, as spurts of flames shot my direction.
"Looks like Leah's a bit slow to respond! Could this be a side effect of the Occa Berry?" The announcer asked. I spun, side stepping each lazily-emit flame sliding through the air toward me. I wasn't free of the numbness yet, not enough to feel the vibrations in my abdomen responding to the other pokemon's power use, anyway. Pressure in my mouth built, and I took a shot. I wanted to aim for the legs, but Arcanine was too fast. There was no way I could actually rope them around. Not without the… sun. I aimed for its face and mane, hoping the goop would stick and distract the pokemon enough so that I could land a blow.
Would I be able to…? I thought about the anger, how bright the sun would be? The lights above were causing my leaves to photosynthesize via my Chlorophyll ability.
"The string lands! And Arcanine isn't too happy about it! Leah's silk is extra goopy! It would probably stick any pokemon to the ground!" the announcer stated.
But it wasn't enough, I thought, as Arcanine disappeared and then reappeared behind me, again. This time sending me flying back toward Lanky.
"Arcanine and Chili seem to be playing with their food!" the announcer added, unhelpfully. Was it just me or did the lights from up above get brighter? Not that I was complaining, mind you. I lost against the ampharos the first time because I took my attention off it.
"Flame…wheel", Chili said. I didn't glance at Chili. I didn't glance at Lanky. I didn't glance at the crowd. I would probably lose against this dog if they decided to take me seriously. But, if they just wanted to toy around? I can work with that, I decided, pulling some mana, splitting it into my four primary limbs as a pair of arcs of flame making their way toward me. It wasn't half-time, I wasn't under the midday sun. But, my mind speeding up under the brightening light as the first arc of flame passed by me, I managed to barely side step it, the second flame forced me to dive out of the way again.
The legendary breed of dog began to blur again. The moment they passed next to me, I took one step, lunged, reached out with pure reflex, and smacked the dog in the fore-legs. They came tumbling down with a quick yelp to my left. I pulled the mana, only partially used after empowering my limbs, coalescing it into my mouth, then held it near the front, ready to snap it and blast them with it, but my opponent was back on their feet already, bounding around the ring—conveniently shifting whenever I drew a bead right in front of them.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Flames dripped from Arcanine's mouth as I waited for them to take their strike, all other sounds drowned out as the world slowed and I waited for their bite of fire to smack me. Come on! I thought at the dog, holding the mana in my mouth, growing more and more annoyed, my abdomen vibrating. Then, a flash of red and black, and the dog bore down on me, and I was pinned on the ground, a small blast of ember dripping onto my midsection, and with a crack, I released a wave of silver, blasting the dog off of me. They yelped in surprise, again, before hopping—out of the ring.
The extra sun lamps that had turned on, flicked off. "Well done! Return, Arcanine!" Chili shouted, the announcer's voice replaced by his. Arcanine, clearly no worse for wear save for a few scuff marks and some disheveled fur bound toward his gym leader's side. A dull, roar of soft claps reminded me—people were watching.
"Leah! Return!" Lanky called, and I looked back toward him, feeling just… a little bit sour. I wandered over to Lanky's side.
That was it?
"Thank you for your patronage! Your pokemon have demonstrated basic competence and keeping their wits about themselves even under a natural type disadvantage with minimal need to shout commands! Fidget's ability to use its advantage over rockruff without overdoing it along with Leah keeping her cool, even against an intimidating opponent…" Chili laughed, Chili and Lanky both took a step down from their podiums, Lanky waving at me to follow him back out to the center, "...has shown you and your team are ready to move up a tier! I hereby declare you worthy for the Striaton City Trio badge!"
I faced down Arcanine, all battle focus and weight of power drained from his form, just staring at me. Approaching, no fire in his eyes. He gave me a sniff, before slobbering all over my face with a single, warm, long-ass lick, lights flashing as both Lanky and Chili shook hands. Lanky accepted the badge, then picked me up and carried me off-stage, a singular light from above following us until we walked off into the black.
Chili's voice then resounded. "Now, for our next challenger for the night, we have Kate! Who is looking for her fifth badge!"
I looked up and saw many small, red blinking lights up above—was that televised?!? With no way of actually verifying my assumption, I just clicked, and turned back, as Lanky and I entered a side passage, passing Sundre—I mean Kate—on our way out the back exit of the building.
I was tossed around and toyed with the entire time! And the one time I got an actually-good hit off, it was over? Just like that? Lanky smiled, holding me up, twirling me in the air of the setting afternoon sun, my antennae each picking up on the release of stress and trepidation. Lanky, after these exclamations, and taking breaths of air to control his excitement—went back to the exit we had come out of and pulled on it. It didn't budge. He sighed, and together, we made the walk of shame back around to the front of the large building.
~~~
"Calm down you dumb lava moth," Lyra said, taking a puff of the last cigar in the Looker's case, sitting cross-legged on the ground, the volcarona rolling around in the dirt, heaving and struggling under the fading, divine flames. She held in her breath, then let out a puff of smoke. The flames faded, then the moth rolled on their ground, finding their way onto their belly, testing their six orange and black-dotted wings, one by one.
"So," Lyra said, stuffing the cigar into the dirt. Ho-Oh was flying around the nearby region, circling for food while avoiding causing further panic in the awakened being. The moth's face turned toward her, regarding her with its lack of expression. She rolled a piece of coal toward the moth. It waddled over to it, sniffing it before beginning to munch on it. Lyra continued: "I'm not sure what's going through your brain. But, take a moment to think. Some people forget a lot, under Ho-Oh's fire. Other people remember more than they should. I have no idea what it's like for you. This is a fresh start for you. A lucky new chance. Those fires do have a tendency to give a stronger body and a renewed mind, so the next few weeks are going to be particularly important for you. You can take Ho-Oh's gift, and wait for Alder"—volcarona shivered—"to return. He won't recognize you as his, though. I'm not accepting new team members, but you can follow me around for a bit, if you want."
Good, she thought. The volcarona understands some of this.
"Don't think too hard about this," Lyra said, the images of the Looker's face shifting back from their generic detective-face. She shook her head. "Humans brought back from Ho-Oh's flames tend to think they were chosen by Arceus or some bullshit. Ho-Oh and I have no clue what goes through pokemon's heads when this happens. We're all just following our feelings. Nothing more. Gimme a nod if you understand." Volcarona nodded. "Good."
"If you turn around and look back down into the hole I just dug—" Lyra said, pointing at the six-foot deep grave she'd dug up, Volcarona wiggling on all four of its stubby legs to follow her instructions—"in the grave, you'll see the dried out husk of another Volcarona in there. It didn't get carried over in the flame. Sometimes that happens. Fuck if I know what's going on. That half consumed body? Not yours. Not what you are now. What are you? Fuck if I know," she said. Volcarona's whole body just shivered.
"Anyway, that's everything I know. Got it?" Lyra said. Volcarona didn't turn to face her, but she caught its head nodding.
"You're probably still really hungry. I almost starved to death, myself back then. Not everyone's so lucky." Lyra said, pointing to a small pile of coal and a nutri-bar she dropped on the ground.
"Now eat your meal and get out of the way. I need to pack this grave back up," Lyra said. In her mind and soul, she knew everyone deserved a fair chance. Volcarona's wings fluttered, the moth squirming, trying to inch along the ground to get out of her way, nutri-bar in its mouth. She grabbed the shovel, struck it into the accumulated pile of dirt, and began to fill the hole in.
~~~
Nimbasa City sits on a man-made lake, the beating heart of Unova's center peninsula. To the immediate north of Nimbasa city, is the great Lostlorn Forest. To the south, via Route 4 and Join Avenue, is Castelia City. Between the two largest commercial centers of the region is the massive Unovan desert, easily stretching for a hundred miles north and south. Only the odd river or stream passing through provided greenery. To the east, Route 16 connects Nimbasa to the Marvelous bridge, which leads to White Forest. To the west of Nimbasa city, is Route 5, which leads to the Driftveil Drawbridge, and from there, to Driftveil City and the rest of western Unova.
In the central outcropping of land of Nimbasa's artificial reservoir, the sun began to disappear over the western horizon. Commercial buildings, homes and apartment complexes housing the city's residents and tourists' places of stay, obscured the last visibility of the retreating sun from the sky. To the east, tourists, teens, and young adults percolated from their various summer afternoon activities—summer schools, sports programs, or simply vacationers looking for more to do as the attractions of the north began to close.
The local populace gathered peacefully, yet excitedly in lines, eager to spend their time at the theme park and experience some of the latest additions. As the last of the sun's rays disappeared over the horizon, the crowd went quiet. The sky shifted from blue, to orange, red, then violet. The first edge of the moon peeked over the horizon. The clock struck eight. The crowd's breath continued to hold. Then, from the front gates of the eastern island, housing Nimbasa's famous theme parks and coasters.
A row of teal and purple neon lights turned on and electronic dance music began to play. Every coaster, the ferris wheel, even the movie house began to glow with purple and teal neon. With the first drop of the building bass line, the crowd cheers. The booths then opened, tickets got checked, and people and pokemon began to flood into the newly-renovated park. There was a new gym leader running shows, along with a pair of new coasters and fresh coats of paint across the theme park portions of the city and its attractions in Nimbasa that night.
Outside of the park, away from the crowds and prying eyes, under a shadow too-dark for the early night, Darkrai emerged, paired with his partner. Darkrai stood tall, shadowy legs sticking down to the ground, hands held behind his back as he admired the surrounding area. Cresselia's face bore no trepidation. And yet, as Darkrai began to move forward, she hesitated.