‘Why the fuck do I keep saying shit without thinking? I’m not ready for this! Me, knowing how to fight? Bruh, I barely handled that staravia by myself and I had help!’
Evon and I were running through the tunnels of Cavestone in search of a certain pichu and a certified child kidnapper (this was giving me hella EoS vibes, like, ain’t no way there’s a creep child kidnapper in this world too). We had our mission dear and clear in our heads, such a simple-sounding mission that’s not hard for an ADHD teen like me to forget: Find the excadrill, get the pichu back, simple enough.
However, there was a very simple problem with this very simple mission. We needed to find the excadrill’s exact location and guess what, we didn’t have that at our disposal! So guess what we had to do? That’s right, we had to Persona 5 our way through, AKA, gather info on wherever that excadrill might’ve taken that pichu that I definitely didn’t forget the name of, why would I ever do that???
So guess what that meant? That’s right, baby! Forced into IRL social interactions, my biggest weakness! Yipee!
At least it was just to ask the obvious and not engage in a convo with boring topics that I knew shit about. Of course, have Evon ask simple questions of “Have you seen this ‘mon?”, receive a yes or no, and then move on to the next until we get our next clue!
What, did you actually think that I’d do the talking? Nah, fuck that, if I have someone that doesn’t have social anxiety like me, they’re doing the talking.
We have (Evon has) talked to some Pokémon, asking if they have seen any sus mole with a literal child in their grasp. Not gonna lie, this made me feel like Chris Hansen for a solid moment. Predator or not, kidnapping a child is a million red flags all over the body. However, no matter how many Pokémon we interrogated, it was the same answer most of the time: “No I haven’t” and “Exca-who?” Not exactly that, but something similar to that for sure.
We slowed the pace down and started walking around. At this point, we have covered much of the village except for a few places. We thought that we shouldn’t need to worry much since both entrances of the village are being blocked off. Evon sighed, his ears and tail lowering. “This is leading nowhere… I wanna believe he’s still in the village, but it just feels like he isn’t.”
“Bro, not a chance he’s out of the village. It wouldn’t align with the thought process I’m imagining.” I said adjusting my fringe.
Evon looked at me confused and tilted his head. “What is that you’re thinking of?”
“Motives, specifically the excadrill’s motives. Not only his Js are so fake, but it’s kinda weird he just came to this village to kidnap someone out of nowhere.” I raised a finger. “If I heard correctly, if that guy is from whatever it is the Dark Rebellion is, they probably want to fuck with the village in any way, knowing groups like those. They gain nothing by just kidnapping a child, in any case, it’ll only make their group seem worse and they’ll be seen as an even worse problem. So why kidnap a child? Simple, to be heard… or something more nefarious.”
“And how does it lead to both of those options? And what’s this nefarious option?”
“Well… option numero uno.” I raised my finger a bit higher. “They want a hostage so the village meets with his demands so he can give the child back. He could simply want money or something else that the village prolly has, I dunno, not too deep into the Cavestone and Dark Rebellion lore.” I raised a second finger. “Unlikely but possible option number two. The excadrill is a creep and a pedo.”
The eevee tilted one of his ears to the side, a frown creeping up on his face as he asked. “What’s a… pedo?”
I motioned with a hand as I explained. “The worst of the worst of possible no-no people in the world. Judging by the state of this world, it seems they didn’t come up with a word for that. Basically, uh… adults who like children in a… sexual way…”
Evon stayed silently for a moment before a scowl appeared on his face. “We need to find those two, fast! ” He then sprinted out of there like a cat going at high speeds. “Come on, we can’t afford to waste time!”
“Hey, wait the fuck up, we don’t even know where they are!!!” I shouted as I tried to do my best to follow Evon with my slow human and sedentary body. My mind then went back to the Elemental Discount Kongs incident. When we were running from them, Evon could easily outspeed them, bro probably even has Quick Attack stored in his body so he could outspeed them in a way that would make the Reverse Flash target him over pettiness. Even if that was the case… why the hell did I carry him on my side???
Whatever, that was in the past, right now, we had a possible predator to catch, Chris Hansem style!
After a moment, a certain memory came back to me, a very important memory that should’ve come back to me way before we started Persona 5ing all over the place.
“Please forgive my daughter.” “Come on, Raina, you can’t be late for school.”
I stopped running after Evon and just stared blankly ahead of me as I processed the memory I received. Sometimes, I wanted to punch myself for having the worst memory retention possible. Fucking brain rot…
Evon noticed I stopped and pressed the brakes at his feet, looking at me confusedly. “Why did you stop, something wrong or-”
I looked back at the eevee slowly but surely. “Evon… I’m such a dumbass… I had a clue the whole time and I fucking forgot about it…”
Evon stared at me and I stared back at him before he just shouted, his fur getting up a bit. “You FORGOT about it!?”
I put my hands in front of me and waved them defensively. “Chill, chill! I have a problem where I can’t just retain some info until I remember way later, like, I’m sorry, okay!?”
The eyepatch-wearing eevee then shook his head with a slight groan as he calmed down a bit. “Ugh, anyways, what’s the clue you suddenly remembered?”
“Well, first off, there is only one family of the raichu line in the village, right?” I asked.
Evon looked away, pouting a bit as he thought about it. “Hm… yeah, only Ms. Ramia and her daughter. Her husband isn’t from her evolution line either.”
“Okay then, so here’s the thing… before I went to the bathhouse, I ran into her and her daughter. After she failed miserably in hiding the fact she thought I was an abomination, she said she was taking her daughter to school. So…” I clasped my hands and looked aside. “Where’s the school since the fake Js excadrill might still be there.”
Evon sighed and turned around. “Alright follow me, I’ll show you to the school. Quick!”
With that, Evon dashed off and I followed suit (noticeably slower than him but at least I could keep up). After a few turns through the village and a few weird looks from the village rs , we managed to reach the school.
The building itself wasn’t what I expected. Like some other village buildings, the school was made with cobblestone, painted cobblestone. The stones were painted orange along with the wooden door, save for the archway which was painted green. The building was almost as tall as the door to the bathhouse, save for a few inches. I could only see the front of the place since the sides and back of it were covered with the earth of the cave.
In front of the building however, two Pokémon were wearing matching red scarves, a shiny furfrou with red and combed tinges on some parts of his body, and a midnight form lycanroc with spiky bracelets in both arms. A second later, I noticed the eye-shaped badges with four white wings pinned on their scarves, making me realize they were probably explorers.
‘Wow, what’s their team name? Team Edgelords? ‘Cause goddamn, ow the edge.’
“Oh, they’re here?” Evon suddenly spoke. I looked at him confusedly, the eevee noticing it and explaining. “Oh, they’re explorers. I saw them sometimes when I used to work at the guild, I think they know me too.”
“Oh, I see.” I said before thinking. ‘Wonder if any of them just hung around shadows just to look cool so they were barely seen…’
As we approached them, the two edgelord doggos looked at us (specifically me). I could practically see that they were a bit shocked to see me, even though they tried their best to play it cool like edgelords usually do. Suddenly, the lycanroc spoke with a female voice that you’d only see kickass women from movies usually have. “So… you’re the shapeshifter, I presume?”
I cringed a bit, caught by surprise that she knew about my powers. “Huh!? How the hell did you know!?”
She raised a paw finger. “One: you look weird.” She lifted another finger. “Two: this.” She then pointed at the building wall, specifically some weird small cracks and crevices that seemed to be spelling out something.
Evon and I looked at each other confusedly before approaching and checking out the crevices of the wall more closely. It was a message. It crudely read: “If you want the pichu back bring me the shapeshifter. I’ll be waiting in the basement” .
Suddenly, the furfrou snapped our attention to him with a raspy voice. “We already took a peek inside the school, everyone already seems to have evacuated.”
The lycanroc put a paw on her side. “Meaning, only the kidnapper and the pichu are inside… that is if he didn’t subtly bring help as well.”
I stared at them before saying to myself. “So it IS a hostage situation then…” I perked up and grinned, putting a hand on my side. “Hell yeah, galaxy brain activated once again and made me read the enemy!”
“Uh… you know he wants you , right?” Evon asked unamused while tilting his head. “YOU are the exchange offer in this scenario.”
I raised my finger before the realization slowly sank in and I lowered my hand. “Oh…” My arms limped as I stared blankly at the wall as I realized what this meant for me, a nervous smile making its way into my mouth. “ Oh… ”
After this, I had just one question. Why? Why the FUCK that excadrill wanted me? Wait a sec… oh yeah… probably my powers or something. I mean, who wouldn’t want a shapeshifter from another world that can transform into any Pokémom only to them? Like, bro could just send me out and instantly win any battle or whatever they wanted with me-
… Nuh-uh, I’m not being the ditto, fuck that.
Suddenly, I felt a claw be placed on my shoulder and I looked back, seeing the lycanroc (who was taller than me for some damn reason) look at me with a concerned look despite her edgy appearance. “Listen, kid, don’t worry. I know you’re scared by the situation, but we’re not gonna give you in that easily.”
“Yeah, it’s our job as explorers to make sure everyone’s safe on a mission.” The furfrou added before winking in reassurance. “Even very strange Pokémon like you.”
Huh, despite their edgy looks, these guys were quite nice and careful. Also, what the hell, man! Why am I getting treated like a child again!? Like, sure, I’m shorter than average but not a damn dwarf!
I nervously took the furry paw off my shoulder and smiled, trying to play it cool. “Listen, it’s nice ‘n all that you care about me. But I’m not a child.” I flashed both explorers a toothy grin while doing a thumbs-up. “I know how to defend myself just fine!” ‘Just kidding, I will get my shit wrecked because of the amount of skill issue I have! Please help me!’ I said internally. I wasn’t about to fight your local noob wild-mon, nahnahnahnahnah, I was about to fight someone who this time could think and not only rely on instincts. So, if I tried to win the brute power battle like last time, guess who wins, come on, take a wild guess. “Besides, I can literally transform into Pokémon if I ever feel that I’m at a disadvantage.”
Evon looked aside and snickered a bit, a smug smirk plastered across his face. “Yeah, sure, totally can take him with your amazing powers-”
I crouched and put a finger over the eevee’s mouth, shushing him. “Shhhh, speak and you might be lookin’ very yeetable for me.”
“What-?”
I got up with a smile and announced. “Welp, if it’s me he wants, that’s what he’s gonna fucking get.” I made a finger motion before pointing at the school. “We move!”
“Wait, hold on, we’re just going in without a plan? What if there’s some kind of trap besides just the exchange?” Evon hypothesized.
The lycanroc took a step forward and crossed her arms. “I agree with Eevee here. What IF there’s a trap waiting for us inside? We never know the tricks these Dark Rebellion fools have, so we have to enter prepared.”
I stared back at them unamused. Honestly, I just wanted to get this over with because, after this, there was more shit I was supposed to do before I could just relax. I wanted to explore around, see everything the town had to offer, and just chill. But nope, here I am, just forced to be the next best thing to actual explorers, who, you know, are right behind me . But well, can’t get good at transformations without a little bit of EXP so… guess I’m forced to do this to fulfill my so-called “destiny” .
I sighed and turned to them crossing my arms with an impatient frown. “Fine, what’s the plan, I don’t wanna activate galaxy brain mode two times in the day. We definitely can’t set up a trap or an ambush because the guy already has the area taken.”
The furfrou hummed in thought before asking me, his tail rising a bit. “Say… how much time does it take you to finish a transformation?”
I was about to respond before the thought dawned on me. ‘Huh… hm… guess shadow man from my dream had a point. Gotta get better not only at transforming into better Pokémon but transforming faster.’ After thinking, I responded. “Well… judging from the times I transformed, guess you could say uh… ten seconds?”
“Hm… that should be enough to leave him stunned.” The furfrou said before looking at the rest of the Pokémon. “Alright, I got a plan, but it’s gonna be risky. A way to safely get the pichu back without any risks.”
“So uh… what are you thinking exactly?” Evon asked while tilting his head.
The black and red canine smirked slightly. “Well…”
----------------------------------------
Welp, it was time to execute the plan. To be honest, I wasn’t a fan of this plan, mainly because I played an important role in it and because I’m also the guy everyone can blame if I fuck it up. Ah, just like the good ol’ days of Overwatch when you don’t push the payload, but this time, instead of cursing you out with slurs, my teammates will probably hit me really hard for failing!
Haha, definitely no pressure at all!
The interior of the school wasn’t that bad… but it didn’t feel like a school. But well, it’s to be expected from cultural differences and all of that. The smell of dirt plastered onto the ceiling, walls, and ground; and the lack of lockers, which were replaced with torches that illuminated the place, even inside the classrooms. Not only the smell of dirt accompanied the place, but a smell akin to shit also infested the place.
… oh… I found the source and it is exactly like the smell… who the fuck allows kids to do this in school ???
Anyway… we were still in the school halls, heading to the basement (why did it even have a basement?) to confront the excadrill. Both members of Team Edgelord (as I have dubbed them in my mind) were still with me and Evon, feeling like our personal bodyguards, although uh… I could smell that one of them was muskier than the other. But personally, the company was appreciative.
… shit, the silence was getting to me, I needed to say something to keep the unquiet demon within me satisfied without doing something weird in front of them as I usually do!
I folded my hands behind my back and asked. “Soooo… don’t believe I’ve gotten your names yet.” I looked back at the two dogs with a smile. “Care to share?”
The lycanroc spoke nonchalantly while putting a paw on her side. “Well, mine’s Ino.”
The furfrou smiled, his tail wagging a little bit. “My name is Chozo, and yours are…”
I flashed an okay hand at them. “The name’s Lucas, master memer and beginner shapeshifter!”
Chozo tilted his head in confusion. “Master… memer?”
Evon sighed with his ears flattening against his head. “Eh, you wouldn’t get it, even I still don’t get it.” He then perked up again. “Well, my name is-”
“Evon… right?” The lycanroc said, surprising Evon a bit. “Yeah, kid, we know. Lots of talk went around the guild after um…” She looked away as a grimace appeared on her face. “I’m… I’m sorry.”
The eevee grimaced and looked away, his ears and tail lowering. “I’m…” He looked at me and stared for a bit, I looked back at him with a concerned frown. He then shook his head and looked back at Ino. “I’m fine, I got over it, mostly.”
Chozo smiled at Evon as he rubbed his head against the eevee’s forehead. “Good, that’s good. Don’t worry, everything will be okay.”
If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
Evon looked aside. “I hope so…”
I frowned at Evon before looking ahead with a sigh. ‘Don’t worry Evon, you’ll learn how to repress the grief soon enough…’
“This is it.” The lycanroc suddenly announced and our attention was turned to a ramp that was a bit deep into the school. “If I remember correctly from this school, this ramp leads to the basement.”
The sad mood from before disappeared as a grin entered my face. I cracked my knuckles in an excitement filled with a bit of anxiety. “Alright, let’s do this!”
“Kid, remember to stick with the plan, alright?” The furfrou reminded me.
“No worries, I’ll follow the plan. I have a feeling this plan will work well since it wasn’t made by me!” I said to myself before stepping on the ramp and started descending, adjusting my fringe with a flicker of my hand. “We move!”
With that, the rest of the group followed behind me. The light that the torches offered started dimming in intensity the further we went down since the ramp didn’t have that many torches, unlike the hall. It felt like a party of four was about to enter one of those dungeons where a big monster from DnD campaigns was waiting to challenge us.
Except that said monster was in the form of a mole with steel body parts and said mole wanted a bargain instead of just looking for a fight.
I took a deep breath, reassuring myself with a few claps on my head. “Head in the game, gamer mode activate.” I said to myself and clenched my fist before marching on with a determined face—time to put the plan into action.
We reached the end of the ramp, entering the basement of the school. For a basement, it was quite spacious, well shouldn’t call this a basement, more like… a storage room. It wasn’t empty, wooden boxes were laid around the room with some miscellaneous objects often seen in old schools present around the boxes, some berries left around the place, and some old… chains? Not only that, there was a cage hanging from the ceiling of the cage with some kind of green glimmer in it.
Was this a damn school or an actual dungeon???
At the far back of the room, there was the drowze- AHEM , I mean, the excadrill child kidnapper, standing beside the pichu as he had a firm grip on the pichu. I could barely see her arm since the excadrill’s claws were way bigger than it, heck even bigger than the pichu’s entire torso.
The excadrill with the black armband was already looking at the ramp, probably already knowing that we were coming. “Well, well, well, so you really brought me the shapeshifter. Thought you were going to fight me and have poor little pichu over here be in the middle of the battlefield.”
I pointed at the excadrill. “Oh, but we’re gonna fight you, alright! Just wait until I kick your ass-”
“You can take him.” Ino said monotonously. “He’s yours.”
I looked back at the lycanroc, eyes widened and mouth agape. “WHAT!?”
Chozo replied with a shrug. “You heard her, give in to him.”
I turned back to the two edgy-looking canines and opened my arms. “The fuck does that mean!? Why!? I thought we had a plan, right!?” I looked at Evon, the eevee looking aside for a moment. “Bro, we had a plan right, we can totally take him, you’re with me as well, right, Evon?” He stayed silent, not even looking at my eyes. “E-Evon…?”
Suddenly, the explorers approached me, a menacing glare etched into their faces. For a moment, I started to feel fear. “Don’t try resisting…” The lycanroc said before shards of rock appeared on her palm. “You’re no match for us, no matter the form you take.”
“The kid is our top priority. We’re being paid here, and what about you? Have anything to offer?” The furfrou asked.
I backed away a little bit before I could hear the drill mole laughing behind me. “Ahahaha, they were right about this village! It’s more rotten than a muk’s egg.” He extended a claw to me. “That’s why the Dark Rebellion exists, shapeshifter, to expose the ugliness hidden in the shadows of communities like these, and riot against them!” He then grinned. “You’d fit well with us.”
“I…” I tried speaking, but words wouldn’t come out of my mind. I just couldn’t stop staring at the trio in front of me, ready to go to town if I didn’t comply with their terms. My expression darkened a bit before I turned to the excadrill, starting to walk to him. It was then that the memories of the plan played in my head, the voice of Chozo echoing.
“We’re gonna surprise the excadrill.”
I got a bit closer to the drill mole, the grip on Raina unwavering even when I approached him with my hands tightened into a fist. She looked sadder than scared for some reason. “Mister…”
“He needs to let go of the pichu, so… what better way than to just give him what he wants?”
I finally reached the excadrill, seeing that I was way bigger than him. Once I was close enough, he finally let go of the electric rodent, Raina running on all fours to the explorers and Evon. Without looking, I noticed she stopped for a moment before continuing her path to the trio on the other side of the room.
“This needs to be convincing, so we’re gonna pretend to betray you to focus more on the hostage.”
The excadrill gripped my arm tightly, the cold and dirty steel almost drawing blood since he was poking too hard. I winced a bit before looking back, seeing Raina climbing on Chozo’s back as the furfrou was already moving away to the ramp. However, he stopped for a moment and looked back, winking at me before ascending the ramp.
“And this is the part where you come in, shapeshifter. While thinking he’s got the advantage, you transform and surprise him with a super effective attack after transforming, anything works, as long he’s caught off guard. You do that while I take the pichu to safety, can you do that?”
As the excadrill started dragging me to a freshly made hole in the wall (probably to be used as an escape route), I sighed and began speaking. “You know… this reminds me of my one time in Sawcon where my friends also betrayed me for nothing…”
The excadrill looked at me a bit confused. “What the heck is even Sawcon?”
I grinned mischievously as my thoughts were locked in on the Pokémon I wanted to transform. From one moment to another, pink blinded my vision as I felt the excadrill let go of my arm. I felt my body shrink a bit, my muscles and skin hardening and bulking up, a small tail appearing on my rear, and three ridges appearing on the top of my head. Once the colors disappeared from my eyes, I saw the excadrill, taking a step back, still trying to recover from the blinding light.
Now, in the body of a machop, I tightened my fist as I felt a surge of energy appears deep in my chest before going through my arm. Suddenly, my fist glowed a sickly orange as I pulled back my arm and I grinned like a madman. “Sawcon deez nuts!” With the excadrill with his guard wide open, I punched him in the stomach. “Bitch!”
The drill mole gasped as saliva fell out of his mouth before I launched him to the ceiling with the boosted punch. The excadrill hit the ceiling hard, even making the old cage fall from its hinges and onto the floor, shattering it completely. As the excadrill started falling, I ran to Evon and Ino, giggling all the while. Evon smiled. “For a second, I thought you’d mess up on your acting and made the entire plan go to shit.”
I heard the excadrill finally land (definitely gracefully) on the floor and then crossed my arms. “Bruh put more faith in me!” I grinned and posed stylishly, specifically doing the Josuke pose. “I wasn’t born a master actor for nothing, people fall in tears over my masterful acting, trust!” I then looked at my grey-skinned hands. “And of course.” I clenched my fist and flexed. “I’m so strong, real!”
The eyepatch-wearing eevee snickered. “Sure, buddy, sure.”
“This doesn’t seem right...” Ino suddenly said, making us snap our attention to her. She had a rather thoughtful face. “How did he move so fast to the school, kidnap someone, and even make an escape tunnel if the bargain went wrong all in a short amount of time…?” The lycanroc then looked at me, crossing her arms. “Tell me, when did that guy see that you had the power to shapeshift?”
“Uh… like… early morning when I entered the bathhouse and it’s been… like… I dunno… almost around an hour from then?” I said, uncertainly. Now that she mentioned it, yeah, it does seem weird that he managed to kidnap Raina and set everything up in such a short amount of time, heck, why even kidnap Raina of all the children in the school?
Wait a sec… oh fuck, that guy might’ve been stalking me… because no way in hell seeing Raina before she got kidnapped was a coincidence. Like, he probably kidnapped her because I interacted with her a little, and then I only saw him because he was probably astonished by my powers. But after that…
Huh… yeah, ain’t no WAY he did all those things in less than an hour.
“Hehehehehe…” The excadrill could be heard as he slowly got up, focusing our attention on him. His arms were limp, and his natural helmet prevented us from looking at the ugly bruise I inflicted on him. “Played me like a damn slowpoke…” He slowly lifted his head, looking at us and grinning. “You’re wondering how I did all alone… but I’ll just answer for you… I had help. Unfortunately, I got cocky and sent her away, thinking I had the situation under control. But that doesn’t matter anymore…” The mole suddenly pulled from his steel hide on his forehead a blue orb the size of a soccer ball (how the hell was he hiding that?). “I don’t think she’ll mind getting called over…”
Evon’s expression slowly morphed to surprise. “A Rollcall Orb!?” He gritted his teeth and growled. “How does he even have that!? That’s only for explorers!”
“The Dark Rebellion gets anything they want, be it legal or not.” Ino’s stance changed as she got ready for a fight. “Be ready, kids!”
I started sweating a little as I got into a defensive stance once the excadrill lifted the orb. “Oooh boy, time for a boss fight…” I then grinned. “Let’s do this!”
“Rollcall Orb…” The excadrill said as the orb on his claw started glowing a blue hue. He then threw the orb on the ground, the ball shattering into energy upon impact. “Activate!”
The wind blew from the orb as a blue flash of light enveloped the entire room, forcing me and the others to shield our eyes from the magical flashbang. When the light cleared, I took my hand away from my eyes to see a newcomer standing in front- actually, the better term would be floating in front of the excadrill.
My eyes widened when I saw the cause of all my recent competitive Pokémon war flashbacks. Floating in place, their four arm hairs lazily swaying around, was a flutter mane, a black armband wrapped around her top left arm hair, and a pink ribbon tied around her front red horn. I could even see a small fang poking out of her mouth. I took a step back and blurted out. “What the fuck!? Paradox Pokémon real!?”
I received a weird look from the ghost and fairy type before she looked around confused. She then looked back “over her shoulder” at the excadrill and said with a smug grin, having the voice of a literal anime girl. “I take it by the lack of pichu and the fact that you called me, that the bargain didn’t work?”
The drill mole looked aside. “They tricked me…”
The fairy spirit stared at the excadrill for a moment before a snicker escaped her mouth. She then laughed loudly, putting one of her limbs over her mouth. Once her laughing fit was over, she spoke. “Oh Ryobi, you’re too precious for this world. But be too naive, and they trample all over you…” She then looked back at us, judging by the look on Ino and Evon’s faces, they knew that Flutter Mane was as much of a threat as I saw her. “So… any of you is the supposed shapeshifter that little drill boy over here told me about?”
I took a step forward and pointed a thumb at myself. “If you’re looking for someone, that’s me! But like hell Imma let you just take me like I’m some sort of prized possession to you!” Realizing that I was at a type disadvantage, I thought of another Pokémon and transformed into them, taking some seconds to transform into them. As the pink left my vision, I looked at my body to confirm if I had transformed into the right Pokémon. Just one look at my new blade hands, red arm, and the feeling of my mouth being behind some kind of mask or helmet confirmed the Pokémon I wanted. ‘I would’ve gone for bisharp, but I probably couldn’t handle it… I’ll do some tests later, for now, we move with this body.’
The flutter mane chuckled as she put her two bottom arms on her cheeks. “Oooh! What an interesting ability you have! And those blue eyes you have… so pretty to look at!” She clasped her limbs together. “You’d be wonderful to have in our organization!”
Ino took a step forward, her visible eye flashing a bit menacingly. “Yeah, like we’d let you do that.”
“Oh my… explorers… the lowest scum of society…” The reptilian specter said.
Ryobi coughed a bit, probably from the pain after the punch I gave him earlier. “I’ll take my leave now, you know I can’t handle battles well. Don’t kill the shapeshifter, alright? We need him.”
“Yeah, yeah, sure. I’ll restrain myself just for him.” She then looked at Evon and Ino as the excadrill already started leaving through the tunnel, a glare escaping her face. “But the others, not so much…”
“That’s what we’ll see ghost bitch!” I got into a semi-pouncing stance as I readied my blade arms. “Bring it!”
The flutter mane shrugged and said casually. “If you say so, ask and you shall receive.” In the blink of an eye, she disappeared, only leaving a gust of wind behind.
Evon’s eyes widened. “Where did she-”
Ino shouted. “Lucas, behind you!!!”
I dropped my stance and looked behind me. My eyes widened as I saw the ghost with a fully charged Shadow Ball right on my face. I had no time to do anything as she winked at me before releasing the ball of darkness, point blank on my face.
“Lucas!”
I could hear Evon shout as pain surged through my body when an explosion occurred. I got launched a bit of a distance away, shouting in pain before I landed on the floor and the sound of clanking steel ringing in my ears as my body crashed on the ground. I groaned and moaned in pain as I put my blade hands on my head. It rang a bit but not much, besides, the pain was already going away. ‘Thank goodness I turned into a dark type or that would’ve hurt tenfold…’
I sat up while groaning. I moved a blade away from my eye to see the specter chuckling before she swiftly dodged a Shadow Ball coming from Evon. She looked at the eyepatch-wearing eevee with a smug smirk as he growled. “Stay still!”
She winked. “What a cutie you are, such a shame you’re standing with a piece of society’s trash!” One blink and she was gone again, dodging a Crunch from Ino, the ethereal jaw biting nothing but air. The lycanroc already looked behind to find the flutter mane with an intimidating glare on her face. “Isn’t that right, explorer?”
Ino didn’t falter and punched the ground with a beige glow surrounding one of her paws. Stones emerged from below where the feathered ghost floated, however, she had no difficulty in just dodging those too with her unwavering speed. It almost looked like she was teleporting even. The rock canine growled. “Dammit!”
The flutter mane stopped in front of me, although, not looking at me. She laughed and shook her head. “Is that everything that you got? Man, here I thought that I’d actually get a challenge!”
While she was yapping, I stopped paying attention to her and got up silently. By that point, most of the pain had receded a little bit, only leaving a small dent in my helmet/face. I felt a hardened and durable energy travel to my right arm, the blade hand felt harder and heavier, yet, I could swing it easily. I slowly and silently walked to the flutter mane, raising my arm. However, before I could slash her back, a feathery limb caught it with a strong grip.
I tried yanking my arm away from her but she wouldn’t let go. She inched her face closer to mine, her red and yellow predatory eyes staring menacingly into mine. I started to feel a little scared, it felt like she’d open her mouth right now and take a bite out of me (but of course she wouldn’t, I was covered in sharp edges and blades, but that fact still didn’t stop me from being afraid). “Aww, you look so cute when you’re scared…!”
“Lucas!”
I heard Evon shout before I could see him preparing another Shadow Ball along with Ino whose body was getting surrounded by floating rocks that circled around her body. Both of them launched their attacks towards the fairy specter, however, she jerked the arm that was holding me forward, launching me against the attacks.
“Woaaaah!” I screamed as Shadow Ball and the rocks impacted my body. The pain rocketed even more as I felt the damage of all the attacks.
“Lucas!” Ino and Evon shouted as I landed on the ground next to them.
My strength was leaving my body, my head rang like I got too close to a church bell and suffered the consequences. My entire body was hurting like hell, the armor encasing my entire body had a lot of dents in it, and I was pretty sure I was bleeding… or was I? I couldn’t tell since it felt hard to process reality at the moment. That’s what I got for receiving two balls of pure darkness and three hard rorks on the head. I hated it, everything hurt, sure, I’d get healed pretty quickly later but still, it hurt .
Evon approached me and looked at me in concern, I barely see his outline with my blurry sight. “Lucas, are you okay!? Can you still stand up!?”
I grunted a bit, closing my eyes and trying to gather the strength in my arms to push myself up, sitting on the hard dirt floor. “I… ngh…” I pressed the blunt part of the blade against my head. “She got hands, not gonna lie…” I opened my eyes and saw that bits of my natural armor had fallen off, and I also found some dents on the blades of my torso, other than that, I couldn’t see my bruises, I just knew I had them by the pain. “I don’t think I…”
“Seriously, I expected more from you guys, but you’re all a disappointment…” She then focused on me, looking at me rather menacingly, a shiver went down my spine as she continued speaking. “Especially you, shapeshifter, or should I say, Lucas. I was hoping you had nice forms to entertain me, but of course, they were lackluster...” The flutter mane then started to glow pink, sparkling energy dancing around her body before she put her limbs in front of her concentrating the energy in front of her. “Time to end this game, unfortunately!”
Ino noticed what was about to happen, so she ran in front of Evon and me and punched the ground with rock energy, making a wall made of stone pillars emerge from the floor. She then looked behind and shouted. “Evon, take Lucas out of here and run-”
Her eyes widened as she gasped, making us look behind as well. The ghost managed to pass by the rocks before they fully erected, while still retaining her attack . The flutter mane winked before she released her Dazzling Gleam at us, bombarding us with fae light as we were forced to block the attack. The force of the attack was so strong that we were launched through the stone pillars, breaking them with our bare backs. Once we landed on the floor, I could smell burnt fur and steel from the amount of light we received, probably steaming a little.
My body felt numb, however, I could still open my eyes, rather slowly and weakly. I saw a blurry outline of the ghost approaching me, looking down at me with a condescending stare. “Hm… seems like I beat you up enough. Honestly, if you’re that weak, I don’t see why you’d be good in our team. But well, you’re valuable, I guess I can’t let you hang around with garbage.” Silently, I looked at Evon, seeing the horrible state the eevee was in. The whole side of his body had an ugly burn wound, bleeding a bit with burnt flesh exposed. He had his eyes open, clearly conscious, however, he did nothing but stare into the demise that is flutter mane. “So it’s time to finish them off…”
I coughed a bit before raspily speaking, stretching my arm towards Evon. “N-no… please…! Evon…!”
The ghost started concentrating that sickly pink energy in front of her again. “Don’t worry, he won’t feel a thing-” She suddenly stopped concentrating before whipping her body backwards. Her eyes widened before a literal bullet of a creature slammed right into her stomach. She screamed in pain as she got launched into the wall, the impact making her spit some strange substance from her mouth. The specter distanced herself from the wall and looked and got her bearings together. “What was-” Her eyes widened a bit before she growled. “You…!”
I slowly tilted my head at the attacker, who had their head return to normal after hardening from pure iron. The newcomer was none other than Guildmaster Quartzo, who was floating off the ground majestically. He whipped his long eyebrow limbs and looked sternly at the flutter mane. “So you’re the one attacking my villagers… it has been a long time, Marina.”
The flutter mane, now named Marina, continued growling before her limbs started shaking in anger before throwing a tantrum. “No, no, no, no! Why is it always you that keeps ruining my fun!” She then pointed at him with a feather. “Not this time, old ‘mon!”
Ino, who was still conscious it seemed, shouted. “Guildmaster, watch out!”
With incredible speeds, the specter vanished, leaving behind only a cold wind. Suddenly, the guildmaster whipped his head in a certain direction before a secret third black and red eye suddenly opened, whaaaaa?????
For some reason, another shiver went down my spine when I saw that eye.
“Pull.” The milotic said, and his third eye shone a brilliant red. From one second to another, Marina was in front of him, gasping in shock.
“Shit!” She said after gasping.
Without waiting any time, Quartzo morphed the skin on his forehead into iron and headbutted the ghost, launching her a certain distance away.
Marina halted herself in the air. But before she could do anything, the water serpent was already behind her. What? But… I didn’t see him move a bit before flying like Marina does, how did he do that?
The flutter mane looked behind her in surprise as the milotic’s tail got covered in a torrent of water, circling it before he smacked it against the ghost, knocking her down to the ground. He didn’t stop there, however. Without even charging inside his throat, he released a beam of pressurized water that covered Marina’s body entirely.
Once Quartzo was finished with the beam, he closed his third eye and fell on the ground beside the ghost. Marina opened her eyes while panting a little, looking at the milotic with a pained and annoyed stare. The guildmaster huffed. “Had enough already?”
“You… you serpentine bitch…” Her body was starting to release a purple smoke, a dark portal appearing right below her. “This isn’t over yet… one day… one day you and your little guild of garbage and shit will fall to the same gutter where the members of the Dark Rebellion once were…”
With that, she disappeared into the portal, the hole dissipating right after. Quartzo stared at the ground for a moment and sighed. “Arceus, have mercy…” He then looked at me, I was already starting to lose consciousness from all the beating I received in a single day. “You… need… help…the-...?”
I raised my blade hand trying to do a thumbs up before I finally gave in and fainted from my injuries.
----------------------------------------
After seeing the milotic and the lycanroc drag the unconscious bodies of the pawniard and the eevee out of the cave, a certain green blob with a singular eye with a hollow hexagonal core inside it started wiggling away from the scene. It was finally free after being trapped in that stupid cell for Arceus-knows how long.
However, this green blob was nothing more than a mere cell for the main body. He was using the cell as an eye, therefore, it sensed a battle brewing in the area his cell was so he watched everything, down to that strange being transforming into two different Pokémon.
That was the part that intrigued him the most.
‘That boy… why does he have those powers? I thought they were lost to time…’ The zygarde core thought as he bounced through the forest. He never would’ve thought that he would see those powers again, being used by such a strange being as well. Who even was that creature, why did it have those powers anyway?
They only belonged to a single Pokémon, after all.
The zygarde stopped for a moment to think about this new information, humming to himself all the while. ‘Hm… that cell isn’t that far away from me, so I guess I could go investigate whoever that boy is. Let’s see if he’s related to him of all ‘mons…’
Using his connection to the cell, the small ameba-like being started bouncing in its direction. He wondered if this meant that a new age was coming…