As soon as we all realized we were safe, Luca leaned on his Piloswine and started giggling hysterically. Florence also let out a relieved sigh as she sat down hard on the dirt ground.
I remained standing and crossed my arms. “I told you going in there was a bad idea,” I said haughtily, ignoring the fact that my voice was shaking.
Pausso snorted at me, and Florence rolled her eyes. “Perhaps, but there is no way you thought that would happen.”
“Okay, maybe not.” I sat down gingerly on a nearby crumbling wall, still watching the building in the distance in case a cloud of glowing eyes came flying out of it. Nothing happened, thankfully. “Those things were crazy – what even were they?”
“I have no idea,” Florence replied wearily. “Perhaps Isaac would know?”
“Good point. Maybe we should ask him.” I turned my head back in the direction of the camp, then blinked in surprise. Three figures were making their way towards us.
“There you all are,” Michael called out. A smaller figure – his Hoothoot – swooped down from the sky and landed on one of the broken statues near us. She clucked her beak at me disdainfully, then started preening her feathers. “What in all the regions are you doing out here?”
“Oh, thank Mew,” I said as a sweeping feeling of relief crashed over me; we had backup already. “You guys will not believe what we just saw!”
“There was a huge swarm of strange majū,” Luca said, waving his arms to emphasize the scale of the problem. “We were exploring in one of the old buildings and they came out of nowhere and attacked us!”
“Wait, that is not fair,” Jordan said with an easy grin as he, Sudowoodo, and Michael reached us. “I thought we had all agreed to wait until tomorrow to start the battle with the fighting majū.”
“This was a different group,” Florence chimed in. “Not Growlithe or Nidoran – something new.”
“Or old,” I added, to Pausso’s trunk-nod of approval. “These are ruins, after all. They were all different shapes, but they each had a single eye. And they all used the same attack, though it seemed to work differently for each one.”
Michael’s face had settled into a deep frown as we spoke. Now he shook his head. “I was told these ruins were practically deserted. If what you say is true, we ought to relocate the camp. Can you show me where these majū are?”
I nodded and gestured over to the building, which I was still keeping half an eye on. “Be careful when you look inside – they’ve stayed in there so far, but they attacked us without warning.”
Piloswine bumped her hump against Luca’s side, and he ruffled his hair. “Though we might have attacked them first? Accidentally?” he added in a sheepish tone.
Michael gave the three of us a judgmental look, then walked over to the building. Hoothoot launched herself up into the air to join him, leaving us with Jordan and Sudowoodo. Sudowoodo started examining some of the stones nearby with the professional interest of a rock-type, but Jordan kept his eyes on the ruins.
“I hope your strange majū are looking for a good fight,” he said in a mildly interested tone. “My partner and I could use a warm-up before the main event tomorrow.”
“I’m not sure you’d want to face these creatures,” I replied, watching as Michael and Hoothoot peered carefully through the doorway of the building. “There’s a lot of them.”
“Numbers are not necessarily a problem,” Jordan replied offhandedly. “You just have to take advantage of the terrain. Hello, what is this?”
Michael had fully walked into the ruin while Jordan spoke. Now he poked his head back out again. “Are you sure this is the right building?” he called back to us.
“Yes,” Florence said, standing up. “Trainer Michael, maybe you should not yell that way, the majū –“
“The majū are not here,” Michael interrupted. “Come see for yourselves.”
I exchanged a wide-eyed glance with Pausso; then the two of us jogged over to the building with the others hot on our heels. When I poked my head into the ruin, I was shocked to see that Michael was right. Not that I could see much at all, since the room was incredibly dark without Piloswine’s Hidden Power lights. But there was definitely a distinct lack of glowing figures in the air.
“They were right here,” I said, bewildered. “Where did they go?”
“Maybe they went back up on the walls?” Florence asked tentatively. “Trainer Luca, could you use your move again so we can see?”
Luca shook his head vigorously. “No way! What if they attack again?”
Michael crossed his arms and frowned. “Are you sure this is the right place?”
“Oh, I’m sure,” I assured him quickly. I wouldn’t forget this room for a long time. “Come on Luca, it should be safe as long as Piloswine is careful.”
“Yes, use the move again,” Jordan said in an amused tone. “We need to be able to see these disappearing majū if we are going to fight them.”
That didn’t particularly help convince Luca. But he gave in after a few minutes of cajoling, and Piloswine agreed to use Hidden Power. She did keep the lights very close to the ground this time, though, which left the ceiling in shadows.
“I think they did go back onto the walls,” I said, pointing at the L-figure that I could just barely make out in the back corner of the room. “See? They’re up there.”
Michael, Jordan, and Sudowoodo all squinted at the corner, while Hoothoot flew up to take a closer look. “That just looks like a carving to me,” Jordan said.
“T’hoo,” Hoothoot added, not sounding very convinced.
“You know,” Michael said in a careful voice, “it is fairly late, and you are all weary from traveling. It would be perfectly understandable if the three of you thought you saw something that was not actually there.”
“But they were there,” Luca said, frowning. “They attacked us!”
Pausso suddenly stood up straight and mentally tugged on our bond, making me pay attention. C̶͔̓a̴͓̾̍p̴̼̥̽̍t̵̢͓͗̊u̶̡̧͌̚ȓ̷͈͓ě̶̙̾d̴̻̓ ̸̦͉̽͝ i̷̳̪͛͆n̸̻̐͗ ̵̪͐̕ b̴̞̍a̴̛̪̔l̷̡̾̏l̵̗̬̅̈, he thought to me with some excitement.
“That’s right!” I said out loud, grinning at my starter. “We got away by throwing poke balls and distracting them – we can show you the one that we caught!”
I ran over to the stone slab in the middle of the room where our group had huddled less than ten minutes earlier. Slightly beyond it, two poke balls lay on the ground: Luca’s, which had never activated, and mine. Mine was right where it had dropped before… and it was open.
“Oh,” I said, disappointed. “I guess it got out.”
“This one did not!” Florence said from further back in the room. I looked up to see that she had raced past us to look for the ball she had thrown. And indeed, this one had a bright glow behind the entry button; it contained a Pokemon.
“Hooray for the strange devices!” Luca said with a grin. “Come on, show us what you caught!”
“Better be ready to call it back if it attacks,” I said.
“I know, I know,” Florence replied. Then she took a deep breath and pressed the button on the front of the ball.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
A beam of light shot out of the ball and coalesced on the floor in front of Florence. I leaned forward eagerly, excited to show Jordan and Michael –
Wait. That wasn’t one of the strange figures. Instead, a tiny green bird with red wings had materialized on the ground. It hopped around in a circle, taking in all of us and our Pokemon.
Michael coughed awkwardly. “That is not exactly a mysterious majū,” he said. “It is simply a Natu.”
“Na?” the bird said, clicking its beak. Hoothoot hooted a reply from where she had perched on the stone slab.
“Oh,” Florence said, sounding a little disappointed. Then she perked up and put on a friendly voice. “Hello, Natu. My name is Florence.”
The Natu eyed her skeptically. “Tu?”
“I suppose you are confused about what happened – I am too. But we can explain about the capturing.” Florence took a step closer the Natu, holding out the ball she held as an example.
And just like that, the tiny bird disappeared.
“What?” Florence looked around wildly. “Where did it go?”
Jordan chuckled. “Natu are teleporters,” he informed us. “You startled that one, so it left. I doubt it will come back.”
Florence looked at the ball in her hand, confounded. Then she looked at me. “They can just leave their balls behind like that?”
I shrugged helplessly. “I dunno. Maybe? That first Rattata we caught certainly tried to.”
“Oh.” She stared at the poke ball for a moment longer, then sighed and stuffed it into her pouch. “Another failed attempt,” she muttered, just loud enough that I could hear.
Michael shook his head. “Whatever happened here, it seems to be resolved now. We should all go back to the camp before they send another search party after us.”
“Too bad,” Jordan said, stretching and glancing over at Michael with a cheeky grin. “It would have been interesting to see how you and your partner handle a real threat.”
Michael raised his eyebrows and Hoothoot flicked her wings derisively. “I doubt we would have had to do a thing. You two seem eager enough to take on the world all on your own.”
“We wouldn’t –“ Jordan replied heatedly just as his Pokemon cried out a happy “Sudo!” and nodded his head. Jordan whipped his head around to stare at Sudowoodo; then he blushed and shrugged. “Okay, maybe we would.”
The rest of the group laughed and Luca teased Jordan about the look on his face as we left the ruins. I took one last look back as we left, quietly wondering. Had we really been attacked by a horde of angry glowing eye-Pokemon, or had it been some kind of hallucination caused by something in the ruins?
We could find out if we really wanted to. All we had to do was aim Piloswine’s Hidden Power attack up at the line of maybe-carvings-maybe-Pokemon by the ceiling.
I shook my head and turned away. I didn’t want to risk getting swarmed again; better to leave while we still could.
~
Early the next morning, just before dawn, something poked me hard in the ribs.
“Stoppit,” I grumbled under my breath, trying to bat away the thing that had poked me. Whatever it was avoided my hand and jabbed into my ribs again.
I felt a sense of amusement from Pausso, so I cracked open an eye to see what was going on. Then I sat up abruptly, staring down in surprise at the small creature that had hopped up to me.
“Tu?” the little Natu asked as it cocked its head to the side. Then it hopped forward and pecked my leg. Hard. “Natu!”
“What – how –“ I looked up, flabbergasted, and saw that Florence was awake as well. She looked tired, but she was smiling anyway.
“I am pretty sure they are the same Natu from last night,” she said, keeping her voice down. “I woke up to them pecking my bag. Perhaps they wanted to get closer to their ball?”
Ý̴̊͜ḛ̴̡̄s̸̳̋, Pausso confirmed, his mental voice still amused. S̷̠͌h̴̗̒̐e̶̡̯̽͝ ̵̧̡̐͆ t̵̻̊̍ô̶̧̮l̷̡͐ḑ̷̟͛̒ ̵̜̜̔ m̷̝̑͐ê̶̙ ̸̱́ d̶̞́ṛ̷̱͆a̵͖͐̈́ẅ̵̫̬́n̵͕̎ ̸̬͆̊ t̴͔̩̐o̷̰̝͊͑ ̸̳̪́ b̵̢͓̈à̸̭͉̎ḻ̷̄l̸̨̻̿.̸͉͍̍
I rubbed my head, wincing at the pain of a first-thing-in-the-morning headache. “Sounds like you’re right. She wanted to come back for her ball.” I scratched my ear sleepily, thinking. “So that lends more evidence to the idea that majū don’t like staying far away from their poke balls for long.”
“Maybe,” Florence said, but she seemed more interested in other things. “Can you ask Drowzee to tell her about the situation, to see if she wants to stay or leave?”
I turned to Pausso, then paused. There was a strangely smug feeling coming from him. I considered this for a moment, then slowly smiled. “You already explained things to her, didn’t you?”
Pausso waved his trunk up and down cheerfully. W̷̧͖̚͝a̸̫͊ń̷̨͇t̴̡̟̃s̴͔̽̐ ̷͇̋ ẗ̵̤́̿o̵̺̺͝ ̷̈͜ t̶̡̒r̷̬̗͊͝ǎ̵̡̜̌v̵̤̈́ḙ̵͔͒l̸̤̪̇.̸͎͓̄ ̸̢̎ W̸͍̤̿͠ȋ̸̖̝ľ̸͍͙ļ̵̞̑ ̸̳̐ j̸̯̿o̸͈̐i̵̬̻̿̓n̶̜̪̈ ̵̤̎ ư̸̟̰͂s̸̜̾͗.̷̬͈̕
“Well, that makes things nice and simple.” I yawned widely. “Another addition for your team, Florence.”
Florence pursed her lips. “I suppose. Training more than one majū seems strange, though.”
“It is not that odd,” Luca said sleepily from nearby. I jolted upright; I hadn’t realized he was awake. “My uncle has two majū. Though they are twins, so I suppose his is a special case.”
“You know,” Hisa said from the other side of the camp, his voice irritated, “some of us were up late last night and were hoping to sleep in. That would be easier without all this chatter.”
“Too bad,” Edwin replied in a much louder voice than the rest of us had used. I looked over at where he was striding into the camp, fully dressed and alert. He must have woken up even earlier than the rest of us had. A soft flapping sound preceded his Fearow as the bird landed gracefully next to Edwin. “I just returned from discussions with General Finnegan. He wants us to begin the operation in an hour.”
“How are you even getting into the city?” I asked, still too sleepy to focus on the important things. “I thought most of the entrances were blocked?”
Edwin looked at me briefly with his eyebrows raised. “Ladders, obviously.” Then he clapped his hands loudly and started walking around the campsite. “Up! Everyone up!”
There was a great deal of grumbling from humans and Pokemon alike, but people got up anyway. Florence, Pausso and I did our usual stretches, with Hoppip trying to mimic us and Natu watching in confusion. While I stretched I watched the other trainers go through their various morning routines, curious about how other people in this world approached training.
Hisa meditated while Misdreavus wove between shadows in a mesmerizing dance that started to hypnotize me, at least until I looked away. Kiah and Corsola trudged over to the nearby lake and dove into the water, swimming a full lap with ease in a few short minutes. Jordan and Sudowoodo practiced sparring with each other, as they had the previous two mornings, and Hoothoot flew in rapid patterns up in the sky while Michael let out piercing whistles to give her directions. Only Luca and Piloswine had no routine; they both fell back asleep and had to be shaken awake by Edwin when the rest of us were ready to start the day.
Eventually Edwin managed to get the whole group sorted out, and we all walked together out of the ruins and towards the edge of the battlefield. I was relieved to get away from the ruins, especially since the creepy feeling that had kept me awake for half the night faded as we moved out of range of the old buildings and statues. But, oddly enough, the forest was still a little too quiet as we passed through it.
I discovered why as we passed by a cluster of trees that were withered and dying, and another section of forest that had been burnt up entirely. Apparently the wild Pokemon battle had covered a large portion of the land.
“They move from day to day,” Edwin told us as an explanation, “though they usually overlap the trail leading out of the city. The damage from the fire majū is obvious. The yellow patches are from Nidoran attacks – their poison sinks into the ground, disturbs the plants.”
“Fascinating,” Isaac said, trying to jot down notes in his notebook as he walked. “I thought that dispersing poison in the ground usually neutralizes it?”
“Usually,” Edwin said in a tight voice. “But apparently not at this scale.”
I felt Pausso growing more tense next to me, and after a few moments I noticed what he had; there was a dull roar of sound coming from not that far away. We glanced at each other but didn’t say anything. I could guess what was causing it, after all.
After a short stint of walking we crested the top of a hill, and I abruptly stopped in place. We had finally reached the battle, and it was just as bad as the others had warned.
Wild Pokemon fought in the land below us at a scale far greater than any I had seen before. There had to be at least fifty Pokemon spread out across the field, most of them fighting battles in clusters of four to six Pokemon each. The area was filled with flashes of fire and bursts of bright light that indicated energy attacks, and there were several places that the Pokemon avoided entirely due to puddles of bright purple liquid that gleamed in the early morning sunlight. And the noise! The sounds of screeches, explosions, howls, and collisions all merged together to form a dull cacophony that sent shivers up my spine.
Two battles in particular stood out from all the others. Near the center of the field a Nidoking faced off against an Arcanine. I watched as the Arcanine breathed out a massive Flamethrower, only to be blocked when the Nidoking called up an earthen wall to hide behind. Not too far from the first battle a Nidoqueen viciously kicked at a Ninetales, though the fire Pokemon was able to dodge away with a Quick Attack and retaliate with some kind of psychic attack.
Isaac had finally been pulled away from his notetaking; he now stared at the battle below, looking appalled. “Do they not sleep?”
“They do,” Edwin said shortly. “But they keep trying to raid each other’s lands at night, so the trail isn’t safe even then.”
The trainer from Violet then turned around slowly, looking us each in the eye one by one. “This is what we are up against,” he told us seriously. “If we cannot stop this battle from raging, I don’t know who else can.”
I took a deep breath, ignoring the fact that my hands were shaking and my legs had turned to jelly. It was time to be a trainer, and that meant it was time to go to war.