Chapter 24: Profession Confession
Another bright and sunny day for Ceailean, Marie, and Crisis. The sky was a clear blue, the flowers shone brightly amongst the bright green grass, and the wind blew with a gentle breeze. The newest addition to the group, Noibat, flew along comfortably. Scorbunny and Fennekin lead the group ahead, both slightly bored. They traveled in relative silence, but Marie was swiping away at her pokédex searching for any tourist hot spots nearby.
“Hey guys, there is this town nearby that looks pretty cool. Maybe we could try a local café?” suggested Marie.
“What for?” asked Ceailean. “Wouldn't it be like any other café in Lumiose?”
“The one’s in Lumiose lack the passion and originality that a uniquely owned café run by a family would carry. That’s just a standard for all those billion dollar corporations.”
“Yeah, try telling that to them when you couldn’t go a single meal without having your, oh so special, sprinkle crisp latte once one of those ‘billion dollar companies’ came to Snowbelle.”
“That was only for a month!”
“It was only available for a month! You were practically inconsolable the day they stopped selling it.”
“You remember things very differently.”
“I remember what I saw.”
“Alright now, let us ease up on the banter.” said Crisis. “Now Marie, where might this town be?”
“Let’s see. It’s called Faena. It was established about two years ago, has a population of 546, and has a train museum. It’s mostly farmland though, but there is one cafe that just opened up. It’s only a day old.”
“Faena huh? That’s quite out of the way. Wouldn’t it suit you more to get you to Camphrier so that you may challenge the gym as soon as possible?”
“Come on Crisis. There’s time to sight see. I’ve never left very far out of Snowbelle so I’d like to see all I can before I have to go home.”
“Have to?” asked Ceailean. “Aren’t you out here as long as you want?”
Marie’s heart skipped a beat. “O-Oh, you know what I mean. Eventually we all have to go home right?”
“I guess. Well, I’m in no rush either. I’m up for whatever you wanna do.”
Crisis sighed. “I suppose I’m outvoted.”
“Cool! Thanks guys! The fork should be coming up soon, we’ll have to go left of it.”
As they walked, Crisis hid the fact that he was slightly annoyed. Going this way is a waste of time. Battles are needed to see whether or not Ceailean or Marie would show anything abnormal. They are the most intense display of one’s character and thus the most efficient way of detecting such abnormalities. However, having been with the group for even just a little while, they displayed characteristics that would hinder progress. Ceailean didn’t particularly put the most effort into his spar battles he had with Marie, only seemingly getting serious with high stakes on the line. And Marie had a tendency to get distracted, as she had just demonstrated now. Further delaying the important battles that Crisis desires. He was mentally kicking himself for not having been there in the unprecedented Drapion battle. Not trusting the baseline descriptions that Ceailean and Marie had given him.
Crisis was brought out of his swirl of thoughts by his phone ringing. He took it out of his pocket and saw that it was Rival.
“Sorry you two, I have a call to respond to.” he told Ceailean and Marie.
“No need to apologize.” said Marie, somewhat confused. “It’s just a phone call after all.”
Crisis nodded and picked up the phone. “This is Crisis, what do you have to report?”
“Hey Crisis!” greeted Rival happily. A moment of silence passed. “Aren’t you gonna say hi back?”
“If you have nothing to report, what was the point in contacting me?”
“Sheesh, so serious today. I can’t call just to see how you’re doing?”
“I-” he paused, “I have to figure that out.”
“Even talking in code. The mission you were sent on can’t be that serious, right?”
“Have you no grasp? We finally graduated so now it is time that I find out what to do next.”
“I know Miskivin finally started interacting with people but that’s no excuse to treat your mission as just another mission. Those two are real people with real wants and needs and characteristics.”
In the front, Scorbunny kicked a pebble in boredom. Noibat was also starting to feel bored. Eagerly, it asked Scorbunny for a quick battle. It agreed and the two were about to lunge at each other before Ceailean caught them.
“Hey! I know the walk can be boring but that’s no need to battle. Save your guy’s strength for now.” Scorbunny and Noibat sulked in boredom. Ceailean tried to think of something. “Um, well, if you two are so bored and want to do something competitive, why don’t you guys have a race?” Ceailean quickly scanned the horizon and pointed to a lone tree further down the path. “First one to that tree there wins, how ‘bout that?” Noibat looked at Scorbunny curiously. Scorbunny pumped its arm excitedly. Noibat was pumped now too. The two stopped on the path in line with each other, letting the rest of the group walk ahead of them. Scorbunny bent down into a runner's stance and Noibat landed on the ground ready to take off.
Marie chuckled as she passed them by. “How bout you Fennekin? You wanna race too?” Fennekin politely nodded no.
“They sound like a cool duo.” complimented Rival. “Letting their Pokémon play like that.”
“It will leave us unable to eat the cake if we do that.” replied Crisis.
“Could you stop talking in code, Crisis? Can’t you just speak your mind?”
“Limitations reside in the air, I’ll see to it-”
Scorbunny and Noibat came rushing by, kicking up dust as they passed by. Crisis stayed put while Ceailean and Marie jumped out of the way.
“Whoa, those two are pretty fast. If we had stayed on the path we would’ve gotten all dusty.” said Marie with a smile. She then looked to Crisis. “Uh oh.” Crisis had a slight dusting by Scorbunny and Noibat.
“Oh Arceus, I’m so sorry, Crisis. I'll get them to apologize right away!” said Ceailean.
Crisis inhaled. “No need. I can forgive this as I’ve been in much worse conditions before. Just please try to have them do further competitions in moderation.
“O-Okay, if you’re sure.”
Fennekin watched the two race off and sighed, not particularly understanding their competitive drive. The sudden movement Marie did had woken up Snom from under her beanie. It took a peek outside to see the two Pokémon racing. Snom gave a confident look and blasted an icy wind down, propelling it into the air and knocking down Marie on her butt.
Ceailean watched Snom fly off into the sky before attending to Marie. “Hey, are you alright?” Marie’s blonde hair now sparkled with white snow. It would’ve looked endearing if her face wasn’t blasted with ice also.
She coughed and ice particles flew out. She quickly stood up and shouted, “Snom! What was that for?! If you wanted to race you shoulda just said so and I woulda let you out! You didn’t have to use icy wind on my head! Now my hair is gonna get all wet! Get back here!” Marie went running off towards Snom. Ceailean noticed that she had forgotten her beanie on the ground. He picked it up before chasing after her with Fennekin.
Crisis, left behind, sighed. “Sounds like you’re annoyed.” said Rival.
“Am I that obvious?” asked Crisis. “I am now free to ‘speak my mind’ at the current moment.”
“Of course it was obvious. It’s not like I’ve known you for eight years or anything. I’ve known ever since I called you.”
Crisis walked forward. “This is taking too long. I’m still not seeing anything that would make them stand out. Just why do they mean so much to Miskivin?”
“You can’t force mannerisms, Crisis. We’ll just have to see naturally.”
“We don’t have time for that.”
“What’s the rush? Where’s the incentive to go as fast as you can? Miskivin doesn’t need to be understood right now. For all we know we have all the time in the world.”
“Still, I’d prefer it if I was there in HQ to help.”
“Oh I get it. You’re excited aren't you?”
Crisis stopped. “Now what could you mean by that?”
“It’s obvious isn’t it. Armageddon has been trying to get that thing to interact with things for at least two years now. You’ve been helping him on the way, right? And now that it has been having interactions, you’ve been forced to set your studies elsewhere.” Crisis remained silent. “It’s okay, you can admit I’m right whenever you feel like it.”
Crisis began walking again. “I would never admit such a thing.”
“I’m sure you’ll get your chance to work with Miskivin, but you’ve been up to a lot ever since Santalune. Think of this as a vacation. Take your time Crisis and relax. Try to make new friends while you’re out there.”
Crisis sighed. “If you insist. I’ll do my best to make do with the situation.”
“Just try to lighten up a little, K?” Crisis heard someone open a door and tell Rival something indiscernible. “Alright, I’ll be right there. Crisis I gotta take care of some things. I’ll call you back some other time alright, ciao!” Rival hung up.
Crisis held his phone out in front of him and couldn’t help but smile. Never really figured out why he gets that way when he talks to Rival, but she always seemed to find a way to calm him down. In no rush, he followed the group as they headed for the lone tree.
Scorbunny and Noibat ran neck and neck towards the tree. Noibat pushed a little harder and got ahead. Scorbunny did the same. It’s fiery steps left charred footsteps as it ran. Then it tripped over a pebble. Scorbunny was tossed into the air as it flailed its arms. Unexpectedly, it caught itself on the ground with a hand stand and then flipped back on to its feet. Scorbunny looked at its own hands wondering how it did that. It didn’t have much time to wonder as Noibat came flying ahead. Scorbunny focused up and started running as fast as it could. The flames its feet created were spewing out three feet high. Noibat looked back to see Scorbunny was gaining fast and doubled down as well.
The tree was really close now. Noibat saw the flame pillars that Scorbunny was leaving behind and thought it looked so cool. Not wanting to be left out, Noibat used dragon rush. But something happened, Noibat actually became way slower. It felt like the air was five times denser as it moved. Scorbunny did not slow down at all, speeding right by Noibat. Scorbunny was in the zone now, it was excited. It wished it could run even faster and forever. It reached out for the tree in anticipation, only to see Snom rocket past and smack it seconds before it could. The loss was so disappointing that Scorbunny face planted and slid right by the base of the tree. Noibat flew in next and was in awe of Snom’s speed, having never seen it before.
“Snom!” shouted Marie. A look of dread was smacked onto Snom. “Come here you!” She dived towards Snom, having the other two Pokémon jump out of the way, and she caught it in her hands. “It was so rude of you to just blast off from my head like that! You-” Snom gave her the cutest most innocent eyes it could. “You-you.” She hugged it tight. “Oh I could never be mad at you. You’re too cute!” Snom, hoping to avoid punishment, still got it anyway in the form of a tight hug.
Ceailean and Fennekin finally caught up. “Hey Marie! Who one?”
“It was my one and only Snommy boy!” she said cheerfully. Scorbunny pouted off to the side. Noibat was in awe at Snoms ability to use icy wind to move fast.
“I saw Noibat use dragon rush to try and move faster, why didn’t that work?”
“Oh, that’s because of the high density energy particles.” Marie sat up to explain further. “Dragon rush is a very powerful move, but the drawback is that it makes the energy surrounding the user very dense. This makes it so that the user has a hard time moving at faster speed. Hence why in the pokédex it has a very low accuracy value.”
Ceailean looked at Noibat. “Huh, how bout that. I’m sure we’ll find a way to overcome that weakness, right?” Noibat nodded.
Crisis walked on by the tree. “Let us move onto Faena, shall we? I bet their café will be the perfect place to have a lunch.”
Marie drooled a bit. “Lunch sounds so good right now, let’s go C.”
“Ah Ah, hold on.” Ceailean held out her beanie. “You forgot this.”
Marie became serious. She felt her head and saw that it was gone. “Oh my gosh, thank you C. I don’t know what I would’ve done if I had lost it-”
“You did lose it.” Ceailean said somewhat sternly. “I may not be around to catch everything. So please be mindful of the items precious to you.”
Marie stood up. She took the beanie and put it back on her head. “Thanks again C. I’ll make sure to be more careful next time.”
“Alrighty.” Ceailean clapped his hands, “Now what’s this I hear about lunch?”
Marie’s stomach rumbled a bit, making her blush a bit. “I want some.”
“Cool, me too! Let’s hurry up and get to that café you talked about.”
“Yeah.”
The two and their Pokémon ran to catch up with Crisis.
() The town of Faena was a pretty spaced out community. The buildings were separated by large patches of grass and dirt. The group walked throughout the town without seeing much people, save the occasional ones who chilled on their front porches.
“Are you sure that there’s a café round these parts?” asked Ceailean. “Not exactly a bustling town.”
“I’m sure C.” assured Marie. “Look, there’s the river it’s supposed to be next to. If we follow it, we should run into it soon enough.”
The group trailed down the river for a while. Eventually they saw a fairly sizable building. The roof was wrapped in ivy and the walls were painted a pale easter yellow. The inside was hard to see into behind the fancy wooden windows. Decorative metal beams were held over the wooden door entrance, which held a sign that said “Greetings” and displayed the hours 10am-9pm.
“Seems like the place.” said Ceailean. Marie was admiring the architecture of the comfy café until she saw something move. It moved out of sight in a second, rustling the ivy as it did so. Marie took it as nothing unusual.
If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
“Let’s go inside guys. I’m practically starving now.” said Marie. Unbeknownst to her, the thing that had ducked away was a Pokémon, a Yanmega. It crawled away swiftly and quietly with urgency.
Once they opened the door, the loudness from the inside was full blast. Family’s were talking, singing, and dancing all around. A waiter wearing black attire and a white apron separated himself from the festivities once he saw them come in.
“Hey there fellas! What can I help you three with today?” he asked with a jolly tone.
“Um, a table for three please?” asked Marie, feeling off put.
“Alrighty then, let’s see. Sherry! Do we have room for three more!?”
From the crowd yelled a woman's voice. “No more dear! We’re close to bursting as it is.” She laughed as the festivities continued.
“What might be the occasion?” asked Crisis.
“Sorry ‘bout that guys, you just so happened to come around lunch. If y'all don’t mind waiting, we could probably find a seat once the rowdiness dies down.”
“And how long would that take?” asked Marie, hoping for a good answer.
“Prolly ‘bout an hour or two.”
“Aw man! I can’t wait that long.”
“Well, sorry again you three. Y’alls must be new here. Gets like this everyday round this time, then again near closin’.”
“It’s okay Marie. Maybe we can make something else.” comforted Ceailean.
“But we already came this far. Can’t we eat now?”
“Ain’t nothin I can do about it, yall will just-”
A man aggressively shoved the waiter out of the doorway and said, “Move Lenny!” He swiftly left the cafe being followed by a middle aged woman absolutely berating him along with three other people. The waiter, which they knew was named Lenny now, looked back to see that there were some tables available.
“Well would ya look at that, it would seem that we now have some vacancies. If you would follow me this way.” Lenny gestured towards the tables and walked towards them.
“Yes! We don’t have to wait!” said Marie as she eagerly followed.
“Hardly a place for children if I say so myself.” remarked Crisis.
“I’ve been in louder places.” said Ceailean, “Come on, we don't want to lose the table while it’s still available.” Crisis sighed and reluctantly followed.
As they approached the table, they noticed it was still full of plates and cups and whatnot.
“Aw heck, lemme get this out the way for y’alls. Ty!” shouted Lenny. A man with a black scraggly haircut tied up into a short ponytail came out of the kitchen doors. “Tyler! Over here!” Lenny took the table cloth and wrapped all the dishes up in it and tossed it to Tyler. “Take those and wash ‘em, I’m gonna attend three more.”
“Y-You got it boss.” As he talked, Ceailean felt an overwhelming sense of deja vu. Where did he hear that voice before?
“Lenny!” called out a woman from the clamoring crowd. “We need four more for the boys here!”
“Ahem, scratch that. Dump them near the sink and attend these three for me.”
“Got it, yep!” Tyler gave a quick glance at the group he was serving and his stomach sank. He tried his best to hide it. “I-I’ll be with you shortly.” he whimpered, quickly going back through the kitchen doors.
“Oh and before I go,” Lenny pulled out a fresh white table cloth and laid it out across the table. He put a small electric candle down in the center and said with a smile, “Voila!” before leaving.
The group took their seats. “I feel like I’ve heard that guy's voice before? Could be similar to someone we know though.” said Ceailean.
“I’ve heard it too, and I have a hunch?” asked Crisis.
“What are you guys talking about?” asked Marie. “It doesn’t sound like anyone I know.”
“Hmm, maybe I’m just going crazy Marie.” joked Ceailean.
“Sure”
----------------------------------------
() Inside the kitchen, panic was ensuing. Tyler dumped the dishes near the sink and quickly shut himself inside the utilities closet. He began to hyperventilate and sat in the corner trying to calm down. Then he heard tapping coming from the small window, it was Yanmega. It looked very concerned and wanted to tell Tyler something.
“You saw ‘em too?” said Tyler, sweating massively. Yanmega nodded. “What am I gonna do? Missing the retirement party was bad enough, but if he were to find out? I would be ostracized! I can only hope to Arceus that they don’t recognize me.” Yanmega gave Tyler words of encouragement, telling him to just try and get through the day. “Yeah, just for today. They will leave, then it will all be forgotten. We don’t ever have to talk about it ever again. You’ll be there for me, right?” Yanmega nodded. “Thank you, really. Staying here won’t solve anything.” Tyler inhaled sharply. “Let’s go!” He stood up and left the closet as Yanmega flew around to the open windows of the dining area.
----------------------------------------
() Tyler emerged from the kitchen doors confidently and walked over to the groups table with three menus. “Hello guys, this your first time visiting Favoris?”
“Favoris?” asked Marie.
“Why it’s the name of our fine café of course.”
“Well in that case, yeah. This is our first time here.”
“Perfect. Since we don’t get much tourists ‘round here, we have a special for newcomers. Free first round of drinks from our chief bartender.”
“Oh wow. Thank you!”
“The pleasure is all mine. After all, you three have decided to visit Faena for all her worth. Please indulge yourselves.” Tyler handed out menus to the three of them. “Take your time, I’ll be back in a minute.” Tyler turned around to head back to the kitchen but Crisis stopped him.
“If you could please hold for just a moment.” Crisis said. Tyler tensed up and slowly turned around. Crisis wasn’t making eye contact as he was looking at the menu. Tyler looked past him to see Yanmega outside of a window, silently cheering him on. He calmed down and walked back.
“Yes, anything else I can help you with?”
“I am wondering what your thoughts are on the Battle of Tuviere.” Ceailean was curious as to what Crisis was doing while Marie was confused on the subject matter.
Tyler’s heart secretly sank. “That incident involving all those missing Pokémon almost two weeks ago. B-But it hasn’t been covered much recently. Media must’ve lost interest at this point.”
“Truly, this is the case as it were. Though there was a mishap. There were four individuals there all with code names. Steele, Jragon, Darke,” Crisis put more emphasis on this last phrase, “and one that got away, named Boug.”
Tyler’s vision darted back and forth between Yanmega and Crisis. “T-They never released their names to the public. You have to be making things up.”
“Oh but the funny thing is, I was there to fight at least three of them.”
“Y-You can’t be one of what those news channels dubbed ‘lil scouts’.”
“No, I was much more important. I am the one who had called upon the help of Team Harmonious.”
Marie leaned over to Ceailean confused, “C? Why’re we talking about this?”
“Shh, let him work.” Ceailean said. Marie sat back trying to piece together what was happening.
Crisis continued. “I am Crisis. Third admin of Team Harmonious. I was a present force at the Battle of Tuviere. It is my job to prevent conflict from spurring across the region, to quell conflict should it ever present itself, and to find those that had created conflict and provide necessary punishment in order to ensure that conflict never arises from the same source ever again.”
Marie has finally had enough. “Crisis, what are you going on about? Why does he need to know all that stuff?”
Tyler interjected, “It’s just a statement saying that he’s still looking for that one that got away. What’s his name? Benji?”
“Boug.” corrected Crisis.
Tyler glanced at Yanmega again. “L-Look, I don’t know why you have to tell me this.” he said, quite annoyed. “Do you think I have any idea where Boug is? Well I don’t, okay?! Now please, could you tell me what you’d like to order?”
Crisis finally looked away from his menu and locked eyes with Tyler. “Who’re you looking at?”
“What? How could you-? N-No one!”
“Suppose I’ll find out for myself.” Crisis pulled out a pokeball. “Decidueye, use spirit shackle.” Decidueye popped out of the pokeball with its bow wing already drawn and shot a feather arrow into the shadow of Yanmega, which was being cast through the window. Yanmega was startled and tried to get away, but it remained tethered to its own shadow.
Marie was confused beyond all reason. “Crisis! What’re you-” She looked to see a struggling Yanmega in the window. Suddenly, the pieces began to fall into place. “Wait a minute. Is that what I think it is? S-Snom?” Snom peeked out of her beanie seemingly bothered for even having to check. But it’s expression changed swiftly as it recognized Yanmega. Snom grew stern and faced Tyler. It jumped out of Marie’s beanie and landed between her and Tyler protectively. It was glowing green, ready to attack.
Tyler started shivering and took a step back. “Please, there’s no need to escalate things.”
Ceailean watched the shock of realization wash over Marie’s face. He knew what was about to happen. He reached over to grab her arm and said, “Marie stop-!”
Marie stood up so fast that she knocked over the table they were sitting at. She pointed accusingly right up to Tyler’s nose. “You’re Boug!” she stated loudly. The rest of the café settled down and watched as the commotion went on.
“No!”
“Yes!”
“No I aint!”
“Yes you is!”
“Quit jumpin’ to conclusions lil lady! On what basis?!”
“Fennekin, come out here!” Marie released Fennekin from its pokeball. “Do you recognize that Yanmega?” Fennekin looked to Yanmega and recognized it immediately. “Yeah? You recognize it? That’s because it’s trainer is right here!” Marie gestured to Tyler. Fennekin immediately went into a battle stance and faced him, embers emanating from the tufts in its ears. Then, to Ceailean’s surprise, Scorbunny let itself out of its pokeball and squared up against Tyler on its own. The three Pokémon surrounded Tyler and closed in. The crowd was beginning to get rowdy in defense of Tyler.
Tyler began to hyperventilate. He tried to say something through his heaving, but could only repeat, “on what basis.” over and over.
Crisis stepped up to answer. “You were quite quick to educate Marie on my speech. A similar trait of Boug’s, demonstrated when I first confronted him along with Jragon. The Pokémon of the ‘lil scouts’ as you refer to them as, all recognize the Yanmega that you have made constant glances at during our conversation. Implying that you know this Yanmega, which is another characteristic shared with Boug. And the last thing! The same jacket you wore on the day of the Battle of Tuviere is hung on the coat rack next to the back door!”
Tyler looked to see that he was right. He shrunk down as the pressure was becoming too much. The commotion eventually got so loud that it drew the attention of a certain individual.
“Now what in sam hell is goin’ on back here!” said that individual. He walked out wearing the standard café uniform. His brown hair, his weird accent, and most jarring, the Grapploct that stood by his side, made Ceailean and Marie recognize him immediately.
“R-Reese?” Ceailean, Marie, and Tyler all said in unison.
“What?! How do you know him?” asked Ceailean.
“He’s my brother!” answered Tyler. “How do you know him?”
Ceailean and Marie were flabbergasted. “Huh?! Your brother!?” they both said.
“You two?” said Reese, recognizing them. “What has my brother said to the last riders of Ol’ Vesta?”
“They’re the last riders!” exclaimed Tyler, completely shocked.
“Yeah! We even have the charcoal that he asked us to take with us!” said Marie.
She unzipped Ceailean’s duffel and reached inside. “What, hey!” complained Ceailean.
She pulled out the charcoal. “Here, look!” She presented it with an open hand. Reese picked it up and smelt it up close to his nose, weirding out Marie a bit.
“There’s no denying it, that’s Ol’ Vesta, Ty.” he said, handing the charcoal over to Tyler.
Tyler took a deep whiff of it also. His face lit up a little. “No way, that really is Ol’ Vesta.” he said softly.
“Yeah. What about the fire gem?”
“We used it to beat his Yanmega’s face in along with a Dragalge!” shouted Marie.
“Marie!” exclaimed Ceailean. “You need to calm down!”
“Why! Is that not what happened?”
“So vulgar! Did you two hurt my Ty!” said Reese aggressively. Grapploct stood ready to battle.
Crisis stepped forward. “Actually, it would be your brother that had caused the most harm in recent history.”
“Now what makes you go on and say that?”
“He was a key player in the Battle of Tuviere. Assisting in the capture of several stolen Pokémon from several regions abroad. It is my duty as third admin of Team Harmonious to apprehend him for his actions!”
“Such baseless accusations! Where’s ya proof?”
“I had engaged in a battle with him and one other. Could you confirm the whereabouts of your brother around the 4th of February?”
“I… can’t.”
“And why would that be?”
“He had gone away for ten days, saying that he had a job to do. Ty, these guys are crazy right?” Reese asked of his brother, somewhat betrayed.
Tyler looked like he would crumple under all the pressure. “I-” The group waited for an answer, but none came.
“I hear no objections.” said Crisis. “Boug, you are hereby found guilty on the charges of grand Pokémon abduction, association in Pokémon trafficking, and the attempted first degree murder of 13 year old Ceailean Crimis.” The crowd gasped. Reese was heartbroken.
Marie was shocked as well. “This guy tried to kill you?” she asked Ceailean.
“Uh yeah. Didn’t I tell you?” he answered.
“Don’t ‘uh yeah’ me! You could’ve died!”
“No…” mumbled Tyler.
“Come again?” asked Crisis.
“No! I don’t deserve this!”
Crisis scowled. “By whose definition!? You were very willing to sacrifice the lives of many Pokémon and even kill a person of your own will! And for what? For your own personal gain? For your sick ego?!”
“I did it because I was trying to save us!” The crowd grew silent for a second. Tyler had nothing left to say. He moved quickly to the window and forcefully tugged Decidueye’s arrow out of Yanmega’s shadow, setting it free. “Use signal beam!” Yanmega shot a beam through the window, shattering it and hitting Decidueye. The beam exploded on impact, knocking everyone down and launching Decidueye through the decorative railing into the crowd. Tyler then made a beeline for the kitchen doors.
Ceailean pulled out a pokeball. “Noibat! Go!” Noibat was released between Tyler and the door. Noibat, however, only tilted its head and looked at him curiously, wondering who he was.
Tyler gave a nervous chuckle and said, “Scuse me.” Gently pushing it aside and ran through the kitchen doors.
“Noibat! Weren’t you listening?” asked Ceailean. Noibat’s guilty expression confirmed this.
“You’re not getting away!” shouted Crisis. He quickly got up and whistled before going after Tyler. Decidueye recovered and followed after them.
Marie picked herself up as well. “Come on guys, let’s go!” All the Pokémon followed Marie’s lead with Ceailean and Reese in the back.
Outside, Tyler ran full sprint near the river. Crisis followed behind him as Decidueye took to the skies.
“Spirit Shackle!” ordered Crisis. Decidueye knocked an arrow and aimed. Tyler looked back and started to panic. Before it could shoot, a white energy ball was shot at Decidueye. It dodged and instead shot at whoever attacked it. Yanmega quickly dodged and charged a signal beam.
“Yeah Yanmega! Git ‘em!” shouted Tyler.
“Decidueye, phantom force!” Decidueye’s body became a transparent ethereal purple, looking as if it was glitching in and out of reality. Yanmega shot its signal beam but it went straight through Decidueye’s body. Then it appeared suddenly right in front of Yanmega and slashed it straight down into the ground. “Gurdurr, pin Yanmega down!” Crisis released Gurdurr and it immediately sprung into action. It ran over to Yanmega before it could recover and pinned it to the ground by using its steel beam to press down against its neck.
“Yanmega no-!” Tyler stepped on some loose ground and tumbled into the river, getting washed away.
Crisis slowed down after seeing what happened. “Keep an eye on him!” he said to Decidueye. It flew high to get a huge field of view.
Marie and everyone else caught up. “What happened? Where did he go?” she asked.
“He tumbled into the river. It would be foolish to follow his lead, Decidueye will guide us now.” answered Crisis.
Reese was heaving, clearly out of breath. “I can’t… run anymore.”
“Really dude?” said Ceailean.
“I was… a caterer on a train! What’s your excuse?”
Yanmega saw that Decidueye was distracted. It charged a signal beam and aimed. Gurdurr tried to make Yanmega submit by shoving its face. But Yanmega knew that it had to save Tyler. It mustered all the strength it could and shot at Decidueye. Decidueye didn’t realize that the attack was coming until the beam's pink glow was right in its face. It exploded and Decidueye was sent careening into the ground.
Crisis tsked, “Decidueye, return!” Decidueye was returned to its pokeball. Gurdurr then finally had Yanmega submit by shoving its face into the ground. Crisis then began running again to keep a visual of Tyler. All the Pokémon followed except Grapploct, who stayed behind with Reese. Ceailean and Marie chased right behind them.
Tyler swam up and gasped for air. The river's current was pulling him away fast. Crisis saw up ahead that there was a waterfall. “Boug! You must try to swim away if you wish to preserve yourself! There is a waterfall dead ahead!” shouted Crisis. Tyler looked ahead to see that he was right. He took Crisis’s advice to heart and swam straight toward the waterfall. “You can’t be serious.” Crisis mumbled to himself.
Tyler swam all the way to the waterfall. He turned around for one last look of the group before careening over the edge. Crisis moved faster. He made it to the cliffside and saw the waterfall was easily at least a hundred foot drop. Scorbunny, Fennekin, Snom, and Noibat all stood by Crisis’s side and looked over also.
“Can you search for him?” Crisis asked Noibat. It nodded and flew down.
Ceailean and Marie caught up. “What happened?” asked Ceailean.
“Fool willingly sent himself over the edge of the waterfall. Noibat is searching for him now.” After a few minutes, Noibat returned.
“Anything?” asked Ceailean. Noibat shook its head no.
“Damn.” said Crisis, crossing his arms.