Chapter: 59

The Outside of Madness

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The girl on top of the Tropius dragged me further away from Fay while I was being carried in its paws. Its grip on me was firm, I could barely move. Though as lightning, flames and rocks were flung through the sky around us, that might have been a good thing.

Luna held onto my body, her eyes red and tears trailed down from her eyes.

Things were going horribly awry. She stabbed Fay in the back when she was vulnerable. She probably thought she was really clever, but she wasn’t. And I had not prepared myself for this situation in the slightest.

Like a set of domino stones, everything fell apart and now Fay was all alone in the middle of a battlefield.

Luna was smart, I had trained her to think for herself, hoping it would lead to better battle skills and a better relationship between us that went beyond Luna just obeying my orders.

Instead, it resulted in stupid jealousy.

Luna could sense my emotions and thoughts about her and without a doubt, I knew she was horrified.

I was mad at her, but mostly disappointed, I could not truly be angry at her. I knew I had made some critical mistakes but beyond everything, she was still very young but that didn’t change the situation.

Ash and his friends were caught within a telekinetic force field created by an Alakazam that trailed behind theTropius. All their Pokemon were safely inside the forcefield but not Fay, she was not here.

A Crobat rose into the sky and stopped when it was flying next to the girl. The girl shouted an order at Alakazam.

The yellow psychic glanced at the Crobat and made a gesture with his hand. The bat was flung away by an invisible force and fell down.

Looking ahead, it wouldn’t be the last problem Alakazam had to deal with.

We couldn't fly in a straight line out of the battlefield, the battling forces were at each other's throat in every conceivable way.

Waves tore through the desert sand and washed away anything standing in its path while cannons mounted to the sides of the floating ships finally began to fire back, shooting strange colored laser blasts..

The girl was forced to zigzag her way through a 3-dimensional maze of war and chaos.

She had claimed to be part of the Hero Unit for Nationwide Threats, which was conveniently an acronym for Hunt.

I had heard about them on the news but it was only a brief mention of a joint strike force between Sinnoh, Kanto and Unova that was created to take down Hunter J.

"My Riolu," I yelled, straining my neck to look up at Tropius’ rider. "She's still down there!" I had tried to recall her with the beam of her Pokéball but she was too far.

The girl grimaced, "Don't worry we'll get you to-"

Tropius suddenly swung to the left and a flaming boulder the size of a car shot past me, it would have killed me if it weren't for Tropius' timely intervention.

"Everything is going to be alright!" The girl smiled again but an underlying tone of annoyance was present in her voice.

"Where's Fay?!" Ash cried out from below me.

He was suspended motionless in the air, caught by an invisible telekinetic bubble that surrounded alakazam.

The girl riding Tropius made a U-turn as a tornado of blue ice spikes blocked the way.

"She is still down there!" I cried out.

"No way!" he yelled.

That moment I made up my mind. The realization I was actually going to do this gave me a frigid moment of clarity. I put my hands to my mouth and screamed the words that would most likely get me killed. "I am going to get her!"

I could not let it end this way, Fay had given me so much; company and trust. She had jumped to my defense when I needed her and I had worked so hard to forge the bonds we had created.

I could not give her up like that. She was trapped down there, caught in a crossfire and I'll be damned if I left her like that.

I expected a response like; ‘You are crazy!’ or ‘It is too dangerous!’ but to my surprise, Ash gave me an understanding nod.

"Okay, you got a plan?" he asked.

I nodded and turned to face Luna, "Listen, I know what you did."

Luna gave me a horrified look and started crying again. She almost lost her grip but I pulled her tighter. "You fucked up hard, if you ever want to fix this you better stop crying and listen, got it?"

She hastily nodded. {Yes Yes Yes, I am sorry!}

"We are going to save Fay and you are going to help me," I commanded.

{Yes Yes, I'll help.} her voice rang through my head, clear as crystal.

Having scolded Luna I turned to Ash. "Ash, let Pikachu hit Tropius with a weak electric attack!"

"You're going down there?" he shouted.

I nodded with resolve, it was clear that the girl riding Tropius had no interest in listening to me which was completely understandable, she needed to save as many people as possible and going down there again would put everyone at risk. Was it nice what I was about to do to her? Not really, but sometimes you have to do the wrong things for the right reasons.

"Good luck!" Ash yelled with a crazed smile.

Guess he must be loving these kinds of high tension, life-or-death situations.

Pikachu managed to turn around in Alakazam's grasp and faced us. Electricity sparked around his cheeks.

"Sorry for this," I yelled at the girl above me.

Alakazam's eyes widened as he realized what we were about to do and Pikachu was suddenly jerked up.

Too late.

A jolt of lightning sizzled through the air towards Tropius and hit it in the flank.

His entire body jolted as electricity ran through it. I too felt a small electric shock and above me, I heard the girl let out a surprised shriek.

Tropius released his grip on me as his body spasmed and suddenly I was falling.

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Wind met my face and tried to tear the flesh off my face and I was sure that the winds would have succeeded if it wasn't for the fact that the ground would turn me into a red splash before that could happen.

Games made it look so easy but skydiving in real life is not remotely similar to the games and having any straight thoughts was hard.

I felt myself start to tilt over as the upper half of my body weighed more because I was holding a Ralts tight to my chest. If I started to tumble in the middle of the air it would all be over, I had enough presence of mind to know that.

I kicked the air behind me in a desperate attempt to rebalance myself while falling. Fear shot through every corner in my body, but it wasn't like a horror kind of fear, it was the kind of fear you feel when you knew a small mistake might fuck everything up.

That moment I regretted everything, this was not at all like the simulations.

An explosion went off a few meters to my left and nearly blew me out of the sky. Meanwhile, the ground was getting closer and oh Arceus it was coming closer quickly. Moments like this made me wish Luna could teleport people and Pokemon while moving, it would make shit a whole lot easier.

Instead, I had to do it the hard way.

"LUNA DISARMING VOICE UNDERNEATH US, GIVE IT EVERYTHING YOU HAVE!"

It was a shouting cry of defiance and despair. My voice was hoarse from everything.

Maybe, this part of the plan of getting Fay back could have used more…plan but I had gambled everything on this crucial factor.

Without hesitation, Luna opened her mouth wide and unleashed a hellish cry. Sound waves shot down and for a second I was afraid I had gambled wrong.

Luna's Disarming Voice did not reach the ground.

This wasn't the end of the story however, her weaponized cry increased in size and intensity, the entire funnel of pure sound became 4 times bigger in length than I had ever seen before.

It was a scream of defiance, the refusal to die and to fail.

A sudden force slammed into me and every semblance of balance was lost. The hellish sound was everywhere and I was forced to shut my eyes tight.

I was thrown into another direction by an unseen force. I braced my entire body as a physical shock shot through it. A flaring pain followed and my world view tumbled.

To my relief I was once again on the ground. I gritted my teeth as I felt the impact setting my nerves on fire.

My eyes opened and I was rolling through the sand, helplessly. Every time my right shoulder hit the ground the pain surged through my body.

I finally came to a halt and a dizziness washed over me, with great reluctance I refused the comfort that blacking out would bring and got to my feet.

Luna was standing on her own, a few steps away and looking like she was about to puke her stomach out.

Still, we had done it. We managed to land without a parachute or anything. Only the faint hope that Disarming Voice's repulsion would slow us down enough to safely crash. The theory that Pokemon get stronger if they are scared, everything had hinged on that.

Luna could not have been more terrified at that moment.

It was about to become worse though. The situation in the air was hectic, on the ground it was far worse. We were back in hell.

"Good job," I said, my voice cracking. "Now let's find Fay."

Luna gave me a curt nod and I scooped her up with my right arm and pushed her against my body.

The second part; finding Fay, required no strategy or thinking.

Any of that would be useless on this battlefield where most Pokemon and people were better armed than we were.

No, pick your battles and choose what battles to avoid.

With the vague direction of where Fay was I began to run, or the best I could do since my legs were numb and felt weird, like they were no longer mine.

I ran past an Onix and Blastoise duking it out.

A purple needle was flung towards me but I kept running anyway. It passed behind me.

Thoughts repeated themself over and over in my head. 'This is madness, the world is ending.'

I pushed them all away, I couldn't afford to do anything besides staying on the move.

Having experienced Shellshock first hand I now knew how dangerous it could be.

Never had I felt this desperate and determined at the same time. My body kept running like it was the only thing I knew how to do.

I had always been very good at running.

A huge Gyarados burst out of the sand behind me and slithered towards me, a furious snarl plastered onto its face.

It was stopped by a girl with green hair, she shouted something and a Gengar lashed out at Gyarados' eyes.

The girl shot me a curious glance.

She seemed familiar.

I kept running away, and had to keep moving.

With a disturbing crack, a guy to my left got his skull crushed in the jaws of a Houndoom.

Was he one of Hunter J's men or was he with the Hunt? I couldn't tell so I kept going forward.

I heard gunshots and screams.

Luna suddenly shot a purple laser at something to my left, I didn't bother to look.

My feet hit something soft and I quickly gazed down, it was the soft tail of a white-colored Ninetales. It stared at me with sad eyes. A second glance told me there was a gaping hole in its chest.

Somehow, it was still breathing.

Was I supposed to do something?

What could I do?

I left it, knowing that at this moment I could only run and pray.

A blue figure caught my eyes and my heart started beating again. There she was, still kneeling in the red sand and staring off into nothingness, surrounded by the world yet lost in her own.

Battles above her raged but by a miracle, she was still unharmed. It was as if Fate was looking out for her.

Maybe she was too small to be noticed, maybe everyone around her was too busy to bother.

I ran towards her and luckily no one stopped me this time.

Above me two people riding on dragon Pokemon were chasing each other; Hunter J and the girl riding the Dragonite.

They had created a power vacuum around them, like these two were the most important pieces on the board and no one was allowed to get close.

"Fay!" I cried out as I stumbled my way towards her.

Luna hopped out of my arms and shot a telepathic cry towards the blue Riolu.

{Fay!}

Fay stared up in surprise as if she had just noticed a battle was going on, yet she didn't get up.

I knelt down in front of Fay, realizing how vulnerable I was but not wanting to leave her alone here.

{I'll try to handle the defense.} Luna said from behind me.

"Fay, we are here!"

She stared at me like I was a ghost. "W-What are you doing here? It's too dangerous for you to be here." Her voice sounded broken and dry, like she had been crying.

"I came to get you," I was getting impatient. I wanted things to return to the way they had been, without all the chaos of an all-out war.

"You shouldn't." Fay muttered as she cast her eyes down, "There's nothing left. Hunter J-"

An explosion shook the earth and at the same time, a tear dropped down from Fay's face. "I can't do it, I can't kill her. I didn't even come close, she was toying with me."

She turned her red eyes to me, they were wet and filled with tears, "I failed her and you came back here as well, so I even failed you."

A meteor shot down from the sky in the background and another ship was dragged down to earth.

"I just can’t do anything,” Fay whispered.

God damnit, now it was the worst time to have an emotional self-reflection. Still, I had to get her out of here, not only because she was my Pokemon but also because I literally needed her battle skills to escape this madness.

I scoffed. "Wrong, you're my Riolu. The one I adopted and picked up in Sandgem Town." I breathed in and continued. "You are a pain to deal with but you are my Pokemon, an awesome ninja, the one who managed to beat Ash's Aipom."

The words flowed out of my mouth on autopilot, a combination of stress and fear forming the patterns to create a coherent sentence. "You did not fail to kill Hunter J because she doesn't matter and she shouldn't define your worth, your mother cared for you until the end, I came back for you."

As I kept talking I felt that my time was running out and had to wrap this up quickly.

"The world doesn't end today, I need you by my side now and in the future. Don't be stupid and just get up, we're leaving this shit hole and I need you by my side."

Fay stared at me.

"Please?" I added.

"Y-y-you mean what you said?" Fay stuttered.

"Of course I do, now get up and let's get out of here," I offered her my hand and she took it.

As I helped her to her feet she shot me a smile. "Thank you."

I gave her a curt nod.

Fay stared at me with a gaze I couldn't place while I watched the battlefield in front of us.

Luna stood awkwardly to my left, clearly wanting to say something but not finding the courage to do so.

The world was still going to hell.

I was still in a world I didn't belong to without any explanation.

My shoulder still hurt.

Yet I allowed myself to smile.