“I believe you promised me a Pokémon battle, didn’t you?”
For a moment Hoshi felt only annoyance, a rough red froth forming between his ears as the setting sun’s light bathed Route 13’s entrance in gold. Bart’s eyes were as shapely as the rest of his face, with long lashes and black irises that had picked up a bronze hue from the ambiance – and for a fraction of a second Hoshi imagined those eyes turned into a ruin to match the one they’d just passed through.
The man’s ridiculous hair submerged in blood like a wrecked ship, bruises adorning his face in place of old bite marks from rampaging gyarados.
But then a surprising chuckle emerged from Hoshi’s throat, confidence breaking through the spectre of bubbling anger. “You wanna battle right before running a Route in the dark? Alright.” Guts’s ball almost jumped into his hand as Crow took to the air, the zubat sensing his intent and moving before he even needed to voice the order. “I’m game. Two on two?” You’ve only got two, and if I beat them both you’ll need to rely on someone else for the night while they recover. I know electabuzz, and that kabuto won’t be able to function well on dry land. I’ll knock that holier-than-thou smirk right off your fucking-
His thoughts were interrupted by a meaty hand on his shoulder. “Oi,” Kenny broke in both verbally and physically, stepping in to stand between Hoshi and the overly-pretty gangster. “I call first dibs! You can take ‘im down again right after, Boss, but I wanna fight first.”
Hoshi’s brows came together in mixed emotion. “Huh?” What the..? Where did this come from? “What, did something happen while I was upstairs fetching-”
Again, he was interrupted – this time by Ryan snapping his fingers. “Ah, I knew I recognised that haircut from somewhere! This is the man who knocked you out of that little debut tournament we had, wasn’t he?”
“Yeah!” Kenny growled. His fists came together a few times as he stepped further forward. “I gotta avenge my loss! You ‘n me are rivals, Pompadour! Bring out that weird beetle, and I’ll show you how far Bubbles ’s come!”
Bart’s eyes widened fractionally, his chin tilting up as his expression went from challenging to mildly disgusted. “Pardon? Rivals?” His lips were flat, but Hoshi could feel the veneer of amusement wafting under his skin – the boredom was an act. Fucker sure likes being a fucking drama queen. I guess it was already obvious from the way he dresses. “I think I would recall if I had a rival.”
The precise, articulate words were countered by Kenny’s low growls. “Well you do, so c’mon – bring out your Pokémon.” His bald head, much like Bart’s eyes, was coloured bronze by the setting sun as he tossed his broad-brimmed leather hat to the side. The sturdy coat came off next, and Hoshi winced as the summer jacket that had been mashed between it and the grunt’s uniform came into view. It was coated in blood, a long, crusty streak going from shoulder to hip. “Or ‘r you scared, pretty boy?”
Am I getting blue-balled right now? Hoshi wondered as the two men glared at each other. His rattata’s ball was heavy in his palm, the tool expanded and wobbling gently. For fuck’s sake.
But if Bart really was the guy who knocked Kenny out of the Rocket Little Cup, then he supposed the man had prior claim to the guy’s throat. Hoshi rolled his eyes, stepping away. “Whatever. You can take the first swing, I guess.”
“Yeah! Thanks Boss, I’ll kick his ass!” Kenny brandished his Pokéball, violence expressed in the glint of his bared teeth. “Or are you chicken, Pompadour?”
The man’s expression went from projected annoyance to the genuine article. “…Fine. I suppose I’ll give you the honour of losing to me – a second time, apparently.”
The rest of the Rockets backed off, moving to the sides of the path as the two readied their Pokéballs, banter complete. “I’ll serve as referee, if there are no objections?” Ryan projected, and nobody spoke out.
“Alright,” he continued, stepping between the men. “This will be a one-on-one Pokémon battle. No mid-battle use of items, and returning your Pokémon to its ball shall count as a forfeit.”
Kenny scoffed as the blond paused for dramatic effect. “Get on with it, Suit.”
Ryan stepped back, returning to the sideline with a bright smile and a raised arm. “To knockout or surrender, then. Loose at the count of three. One, two-”
As he shouted “Three!” the two grunts tossed their balls, both aiming for the middle of the field.
“Fuck ‘um up, Savage!” “Beady, show this waste of a uniform a real man’s fighting spirit.”
Crow alighted on his shoulder once again, and Hoshi felt a momentary flash of irritation at being a spectator rather than combatant. But as the Pokémon coalesced – nearly touching each other – all his attention was dragged into analyzing the battle. Ah, he’s sent out Savage, not Bubbles. That would be bad if Bart had decided to use his electabuzz, but I guess that was the point of goading him in the first place.
…Or probably not. Kenny isn’t that canny.
The frantic shouts of the trainers washed over his ears, turning into white noise behind the actions of the lickitung and kabuto. Savage’s tongue extended, nearly snaring the beetle in the first second – but a water jet shot out from the kabuto’s underside, sending it into the air and away from the questing pink muscle. Not Water Gun – Aqua Jet? It spun above the field, iridescent shell glowing gold as a wave of mud followed the water. The muck – Mud-Slap and Sand Attack together, maybe? – liberally coated Savage's sticky tongue, and he gurgled in displeasure.
“Supersonic!”
“Retreat.”
The kabuto – Beady, Hoshi’s brain finally processed – landed heavily, but despite the rough crash it was only still for a fraction of a second before a second Aqua Jet blasted it away from its opponent. The waves of Supersonic sound stirred dust from the dry autumn ground as Savage let loose, but they failed to reach their target. Huh, I guess it can move on land… Probably drains its stamina pretty hard, though. Candy only had so many Water Guns in her for any given battle, and while this Pokémon was more experienced, Hoshi figured the same logic still applied.
"Oi, don't just stand there!"
“Good dodge. Let’s keep our distance from this smelly creature.” Bart’s eyes flashed as Savage wrung his tongue out like a towel, more occupied with cleaning himself than Kenny’s orders to pursue. “Ancient Power.”
The kabuto stilled – and then, for long seconds, nothing happened. Huh? Is this a charge-up move like Solar Beam?
It didn’t feel like it. No, Hoshi concluded, it wasn’t; the atmosphere was wrong. There was no premonition of power, no building tension beyond what the grunt’s words evoked. When a white glow erupted from the beetle’s shell – and a spike of stone erupted from under its feet, which struck Savage in the belly – it almost felt anticlimactic. Despite packing enough oomph to send the slowly approaching lickitung tumbling, something felt… missing.
That felt like when I try to make Crow use Bite. She can do it, but it’s not… done. Beady couldn’t properly complete the move, which made it sluggish and weak.
But did that really matter, when Savage's only ranged option was Supersonic? It figures – even if the beetle runs out of water, Kenny has the one Pokémon out of all of us that might just be slower than a crawling bug. Even Bear was faster on her feet, as long as she hadn’t used Curse. I thought it was a clever move at the start, but Bubble might actually have had a better chance at winning with Sand Attack and some luck; Savage is tough, but on his own he struggles to deal damage.
And as the battle progressed, Hoshi found that his thoughts mirrored reality – for the most part. The battle turned into a slow, grinding affair; Beady swiftly became tired from using the incomplete attack, and it failed to knock the lickitung out before things were forced into melee. Savage, on the other hand, was unable to land any Licks – the only damage he was doing was from confusing the kabuto, causing it to careen around when it used Aqua Jet. The beetle sent itself dashing against the ground as often as it struck its opponent, and with a few Defence Curls Savage was only taking bruises.
Pretty soon – in absolute terms; subjectively it felt like watching paint dry – the battlefield was a mess of mud and churned earth. Hoshi looked speculatively over to where Puce had begun battling two of the rookies, Tomato the koffing facing Tor’s spearow in the air while Bear the slowpoke was being beaten up by Lilian’s increasingly enraged mankey.
Those both look like more interesting battles at this point, but… Kenny was his underling, and this battle had emotional stakes for the man, as drop-dead boring as it was to watch. Hoshi simply had to tough it out.
This is like that double battle we had at the start of the month, but without a dragon to get quick knockouts. The kabuto is… actually pretty similar to Savage in terms of strengths and weaknesses, probably. Slow and defensive, though Aqua Jet lets it make up for its stubby legs. Its attacks were definitely better than Savage’s, but neither really had the ability to knock out the other – this was going to come down to determination and stamina. Or rather… fighting spirit. Hah.
The battle dragged onwards like a metapod climbing a tree, but finally, as the sun dipped down below the treeline, Bart gave in. “Ridiculous,” he muttered, his Pokéball’s laser shooting out to return Beady. “It’s like fighting a training dummy. At this rate we’ll still be pummeling you while walking back to the city; I concede.”
Kenny pumped his arms, roaring and running onto the field. “Yeah! Concede my ass, I fuckin’ won! Get some!” He gave his lickitung a noogie, somehow energetic about the result despite the glacial, anticlimactic battle.
Savage, for his part, blew a tired raspberry and keeled over. He was dead asleep before he hit the ground.
----------------------------------------
“Yo, time to wake up.”
Nerine’s eyelids split open with a great and lingering reluctance, the world appearing in blotches of blue and purple and black. Oh. Is it dusk already?
Her glasses went back on her face, and as she rubbed the gritty gunk out of her eyes she found that she felt… better. Not good, but better. The innocent man she might very well have killed had things gone a hair worse had apparently decided not to appear in her dreams today, for which she was grateful. Her ekans hissed and uncoiled slightly from around her neck, while her venonat made near-inaudible sounds as it nestled against her side.
Hoshi – why was it always him that woke her up like this? – offered her a hand, and she stood. “So… can I ask about that?” he said, and it took her a moment to realise she’d been given a question.
It was starting to become properly dark – how long had the battles taken? “Huh? About what?” Did something else happen while she’d been asleep?
“The…” he began, but then Hoshi paused as a frustrated look planted itself firmly on his face. His hand came up to gesture roughly. “The everything. The sleeping and the drugs and the not showing up to training and… all of that shit.”
And suddenly, Nerine was tired all over again. “I… I don’t wanna talk about it. It’s complicated.” Her stomach growled – though it was more from general distress than anything close to hunger.
The Rocket looked at her with narrow eyes, displeased – but after a second his gaze stopped being quite so piercing. “Fine. You’ve got your own shit going on, and I’ll respect that – to a point. But if you fuck up something important because of ‘it’s complicated,’ then we’ll be having a long, long talk. Understood?”
Her lips were dry – and her tongue, too. Fuck. When’s the last time I drank something? She fumbled for her canteen. “Okay.”
The one-word answer seemed to be just satisfying enough, because Hoshi sent her a final squint before turning away. She leaned against the tree for a moment, filling her belly with water as the smog filling her head cleared. She was only forced to take a breath when a peel of thunder rang out, startling her enough for liquid to jump down the wrong hole.
Nerine coughed wetly, and realised that another battle was happening not ten metres away.
Wait, Hoshi is – did Kenny’s fight really take this long? She’d assumed he would lose instantly – that guy had no idea how to use his Pokémon effectively, and the fact he managed to win every now and then despite his lack of strategy was almost insulting. At least Puce tries to learn… Ugh, no, I don’t wanna think about that right now…
Sherry rubbed her bristly fur against Nerine’s ankle, and she came back to herself slightly. Fuck. I really am fucked up.
I… Didn’t think it would be this hard. And it wasn’t like she’d been expecting it to be easy, but… I’m not sure what I’ll do if I see someone from the clan. I’ve gotten sloppy… They weren’t supposed to know I was connected to the Gym at all…
She felt like she was breaking apart, long nights and conflicted days chipping away at her like tiny boring insects stripping the bark from a tree – but then another peal of thunder rang out, and her expression firmed. She reached down, dragging her fingers through the venonat’s thick fur. “Yeah, I know,” she said to no-one. A ways away Guts the rattata dodged a Thunder Punch by millimetres. “If it was easy, anybody could do it.”
Even further away, on the other side of the path, the three new Rocket Grunts inspected a vacant-eyed lickitung as Kenny showed it off. Puce was sitting with Cliff, nattering away while the Rocket Enforcer occasionally grunted back, his eyes on the battle. Casca was nearby, and Puce was tending to her Pokémon with a Potion.
For a moment, she looked at the scene as an outsider: a group of young adults were casually going through the motions of becoming Pokémon Trainers, hiking through the wilderness between cities. A normal, everyday occurrence.
Then she blinked, and the illusion ended. Once more she was a low-level henchman among a group of criminals. Her Senior Grunt was putting an unruly underling in his place, while the Enforcer scanned the trees for hidden eyes. The three new recruits were uncertain, but in no time they would become accustomed to it – the fights, the tension, the… treason, all of it.
Her stomach lurched, but she forced it down. If it was easy, anybody could do it. The thought steadied her as much as the slightly-warm snake around her neck, Tomato protecting what little skin was left exposed from the encroaching night’s chill. I’ve just gotta muddle through. There’s a reason I’m here – there’s a reason it’s me here.
She all but sidled along the dense treeline bordering the path, until she was close enough to the blonde woman – Mimosa Kamoku – that they could speak without it being awkward. “Hey,” she said, and the Rocket Grunt’s head turned. “You want a smoke? Trade you for whatever you’ve got.”
----------------------------------------
Once again, Hoshi locked eyes with Kaz Kazubara – and this time, nothing barged in to interrupt their battle. The only thing between him and his opponent was Puce, who was looking even larger than usual in her camping gear as she played the role of referee.
“Um, same rules as last time?” She asked, and Hoshi nodded.
“Sounds good to me.”
Guts’s ball was once again already in his hand. She was the obvious pick; the fastest of his Pokémon, enough to hopefully equal a fully-grown electabuzz. And if her special ability is what I’m hoping it is…
“Stick to the plan.” he muttered into the expanded Pokéball. “Start with Focus Energy, and stay close.”
Puce nodded back. “Alright… On three. One, two, three!”
Her countdown was fast – much faster than Ryan’s had been, anyway – and both he and Bart were caught off-guard. Then the shock broke, and their balls flew.
Bart’s struck near Hoshi’s side of the darkening field, surprise flashing across his face as he saw his opponent do the same. The two monsters took the field less than a metre apart. “Confident you can match Madder’s Thunder Punch, are you?”
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
Hoshi didn’t respond to the banter, focusing all his attention on the electabuzz already winding back its – her, given the antenna length and the pattern of black stripes across yellow fur – arm. This isn’t a match I’ll win by looking at the opposing trainer. No, this is a test of how much attention I’ve paid to Bob over the years.
Because while Lieutenant Surge’s most iconic Pokémon was his raichu, Blitz, the ones he used most often in battle were Humvee the electrode, and Jackson the electabuzz. And while each Pokémon would obviously have their own way of fighting, influenced by their personality and trainer…
You’d have to be a fucking idiot not to copy what your city’s Gym Leader does with the same Pokémon, at least to start out.
He’d seen just a hint of it during their trek through the ruined docks; this electabuzz, this Madder, fought very nearly identically to Jackson. But while Jackson would stomp ten Guts without breaking a sweat, Hoshi was confident this electabuzz wasn't nearly as strong.
The battle began well; Madder’s fists sang with electricity as she followed the half-hidden order, a sputtering hiss of superheated air echoing around as it bounced off the dense trees on either side of the field. “Stay low,” Hoshi ordered, and Guts spread her legs further as two things happened: the electabuzz punched with all her weight behind the blow, and the energy in Guts’s body became sharp and focused.
“Now! Swift!”
The stars erupted from her mouth, and for a moment Hoshi’s muscles collectively clenched as Madder took one, two, three hits without flinching – but then the fourth struck the electric type Pokémon in the eye, and her punch went wild. It smashed down, a shockwave of sparks dancing out and arcing into both her and Guts-
But the tiny edge of the attack wasn’t enough to deter Hoshi’s rattata. She charged forward, darting under the larger Pokémon’s round body to strike at its legs with Tail Whip.
“Shockwave,” Bart ordered, calm despite losing the first exchange, and the word caused Hoshi’s jaw to clench. Damn, I was hoping for Discharge.
“Bite!” he ordered, forced to deviate from the plan he’d set out only a single moment in. Shock Wave was weaker than Discharge, yes, but it also covered a much larger area – there was no point in trying to dodge.
His teeth grit even harder as Madder got her attack off first, a wave of diffuse electricity expanding so far, Hoshi had to take two steps back lest he and Crow be caught in it as well. Guts squeaked in pain, but her teeth found the Electabuzz’s ankle.
Bart’s voice was tinged with a mix of superior smugness, and distaste – it was obvious he thought he would win, and also that he should be winning more. “Again.”
“Keep biting!” Damn it all, I misjudged him – I thought he’d be like Bob, and prioritise speed and power. Shock Wave was maybe the one move that he couldn’t work around; it hit the whole field, so predicting the opponent’s movements was useless. He only used Thunder Punch against those fishermen. “Guts, Quick Attack! Aim high!”
His rattata reared up, sinking her teeth into the enemy’s thigh with quick-but-shallow nips – and then its soft belly as the electabuzz turned. Electricity arced out again, but Guts was giving as good as she got-
And before another Shock Wave could be released, Bart changed his order.
“Belay!” he yelled, raising his voice for the first time. “Don’t let it bite you – grab this rat and crush it. Thunder Punch!”
Hoshi’s heart beat wildly in his chest, small stabs of pain prickling against his bare neck as he swept his arm out, forcing Crow to dig the tiny, near-invisible claws at the ends of her wings into his skin. Yes! That’s right, use the attack you’ve seen on television since you were a little kid! “Dodge, under her legs! Tail Whip!”
Guts managed to evade Madder’s grab by a hair, but the electabuzz also dodged; she leapt over Guts’s swinging tail, pivoting on her uninjured leg to aim her punch more solidly.
Another Swift came out, but Hoshi was again surprised by a move he hadn’t expected; Madder opened her mouth, another set of twinkling stars firing out of the ‘mon’s wide gullet. Seriously? Why the fuck would he have Swift and-
The thought violently cut off as Hoshi swept his arm again. “Dodge!” And miraculously, they held on – the two attacks nullified each other, but Guts managed to leap to the side at the last possible moment.
Against Lieutenant Surge, the best strategy is to match him – to go for trades, and hope your offense can match his while your defenses nullify his speed. But that won’t work here; Madder is built differently than I’d thought. More technical, more able to handle an endurance match.
He took a breath and bellowed as Guts missed a Bite attack, Madder retracting her arm before the Rattata could latch on. “Full offence! Go for the eyes, Guts!”
“Paralyse it and retreat.”
The electabuzz rubbed her hands together as Guts leapt, and again her attack came out first. A faint ripple of electricity went out, less violent than the Shock Waves but no less deadly in its own way. The Thunder Wave burrowed into Guts’s body, her muscles turning jittery – and Hoshi felt the ghost of a smile lurking under his snarl. “Try and power through!” he yelled. C’mon! It gave us the edge against Junior in the Gym battle – I’m pretty sure your ability is Guts, Guts!
That was the theory, at least; it was shockingly hard to puzzle out in training, since the only Pokémon in the group that could poison with any consistency could also just fly out of range of his rattata’s melee attacks.
Come on, he repeated to himself as Madder backpedaled, spinning her arms to build up a faster charge. A few good hits – if we can get it on the ground, the fight is done! We can win this!
Guts charged forward, legs shaky, and the Shock Wave washed over her once, then again. She came within jumping distance — and the electabuzz calmly stepped back as the paralysis did its job. Even if her ability did amplify her strength, Guts had no special immunity to the nerve-disrupting electricity.
“Damn it! Swift, then close in! Aim low-!”
Hoshi’s teeth came together like a guillotine, cutting off the last moment of the order as red coloured his vision. We can win this! There has to be something..! And… there was. Do I try it? Using an incomplete move…
It was what had cost Bart his battle against Kenny, he was pretty sure. Beady had been on its last legs; Bart had only withdrawn because he wanted to save face. Without those Ancient Powers draining the kabuto’s stamina, the result probably would have been different.
There were three moves that the Mini-Dex displayed in warning-orange text when Hoshi inserted it into Guts’s ball: Tackle, which had fallen to the side the moment she’d learned Bite. Hyper Fang, which they’d been training furiously. And Pursuit, which Hoshi had been mostly ignoring – an attack that specifically countered a fleeing opponent. There were a few reasons they’d been neglecting it; Guts was already fast, and Quick Attack was right there when they needed to get in a hit against a retreating Pokémon. Bite was a stronger dark type attack. Time spent learning the move, which Kantonian Rattata weren’t entirely suited for, was time that wasn’t going into Hyper Fang and general fitness.
But in this situation…
No. Hoshi let out a breath. It’s an even worse option than what we’re doing now. I’m imagining something that isn’t gonna happen. I’ll stick to what worked against Junior.
The battle continued. Madder took the Swift on raised forearms, the Focus Energy-boosted stars drawing blood but failing to disrupt the building Shock Wave. It came out, Guts took the hit stoically, and she dashed forward as the electabuzz backpedaled. Two more exchanges were traded before Madder hit the tall grass, croaking in displeasure as her feet tangled in the forest undergrowth.
There we go. “Go in!”
Bart’s scoff reached his ears, only audible to his hindbrain as Hoshi’s vision began to narrow. “As if such an obvious strategy would work. Madder, grab it.”
Guts dashed forward, sending a single star out to crash against her opponent in a spray of pure while light as she jumped – and the electabuzz once again took the hit without flinching, grabbing the rat out of the air before her teeth could sink into the monster’s face.
A Thunder Punch smashed into the rattata’s face, blackening her fur. And so as Madder wound up for a second one, and as Guts sent out another Swift while trying to pry herself free… Hoshi hefted her Pokéball.
“Return,” he conceded before the final blow could land. “Fuck.” The plastic shell felt cold in his hand – no, it was cold, the night’s chill finally creeping back into his awareness. “Fuck.”
“Oh… Um, the winner is Mister Bart, by concession,” Puce announced for the benefit of no-one. “But that was a good match, though! I bet that electabuzz is at a third badge level, at least!”
“At least,” Bart repeated. Then he returned his own Pokémon, swapping her for Beady the kabuto. The grunt walked forward, and it took Hoshi a second to realise he was waiting for the post-battle handshake.
With gritted teeth, Hoshi met him in the centre of the field. “I wasn’t expecting that much from a rat,” Bart said as their hands clamped. The man’s grip was loose, disrespectful, but Hoshi weathered both it and the faint praise without exploding. “I can see why you made Senior Grunt. You should find a stronger Pokémon, to better utilise your skills.”
His words might have sounded cordial – or at least half-cordial – but the smug tone and tilt of his chin turned them into a deadly insult. Hoshi bit his tongue, the minor pain and taste of blood steadying his wavering vision.
“Your Pokémon was stronger than mine,” was all he said before wrenching his hand from the grunt’s loose grip. Then Hoshi turned, and raised his voice to call for the entire group. “Five minutes, then we’re heading out. We’ll go as far as we can, then pitch our tents and sleep.”
----------------------------------------
The woods are horrible, Tor thought as his spearow defiantly Pecked away at a larger, stronger noctowl. The buildup of Leers and Growls from he and his friends' Pokémon meant that he was doing more damage and it less, but that could only account for so wide a gap.
Worse, Mojo’s meowth and Lily’s mankey couldn’t really do anything but layer on the weak supporting moves, and they were beginning to lose their effectiveness as the large owl realised that they were paper tigers. It swept its wings back and forward, swooping around Spearow’s strikes like… Well, like an adult stepping around a baby.
Mojo tossed a rock with a cry of “Fuck off!” the annoyance in his words at odds with the fear revealed by the backsplash of their collective flashlights.
Fear, but not terror; the owl probably wouldn’t kill them, even if it won – just one of their Pokémon.
Not that they weren’t fighting like their lives were on the line. “Spearow, stay low! Bring it close for the others!” Tor’s fists clenched his bird’s ball tightly, and he wished he had something equally solid he would be willing to lose – Mojo’s arm was okay, but he was a batter, not a pitcher. I should’ve been picking up rocks like him. If I’d known we’d be going out on the first day, I’d have…
Well, he probably would have split, honestly. The current situation was just a little bit fucked up, holy shit. Spearow did its best to swoop low, but the noctowl matched its speed despite being larger and heavier, powerful wingbeats driving Tor’s gifted Pokémon to the ground. Then it turned its head, catching Mojo’s cat as it attempted to pounce from a low-hanging branch.
The telekinetic shove sent it, too, to the forest floor. Then another rock beaned the noctowl centre-mass, and it sent out another Confusion – this time, aimed at the annoying human.
“Gurk!” Mojo exclaimed as he was lifted and sent into a tree. His cat yowled, leaping again from the underbrush, and Lily’s mankey also leapt from a tree.
A screen of glowing light encircled the owl, both Pokémon bouncing off the protective film.
“It's predicting our attacks! I didn’t think wild Pokémon were smart like this!” Lily yelled, drawing a Potion from a pouch on her heavy vest. “What do we do?!”
Mojo rose out of the darkness like a zombie from loose-packed soil, clawing at the heavy foliage as he rooted around for his flashlight. “I think…” Tor turned his way. Yeah? “…This is poison ivy. Yeah, I’m pretty sure.”
Tor huffed out a panicked laugh. “Fuck off! We’re screwed here, man!” How is this even slightly reasonable? I have a spearow, a fucking baby spearow! I should be fighting pidgey at the beach, not evolved Pokémon in an Arcus damned secret-ninja-training forest maze! Where are the others?!
Lily recalled her mankey, then released it again to get it within Potion range. Tor would have liked to do the same, but his fucking bird was somewhere under this stupidly dense nature. If they made it out of this, he was staying nice and safe in the city for the rest of his life.
“Don’t panic,” his girlfriend said, hypocritically dropping the medicine with a curse. "One of the Rockets should be here any second. We’ve been screaming our heads off for like a whole minute here."
Unless they’re caught up with their own battles, his traitorous brain supplied. No, screw that, these guys are supposed to be strong. His hands shook in a way he hadn’t experienced since his first professional game, Spearow’s ball rattling with an soft, otherworldly sound as whatever technology was inside tried to keep the thing stable. “Yeah,” he tepidly sent back, unable to muster any enthusiasm for the lie. “We’re gonna be fine.”
Then, in a flash of blue light, the lie became true. Eerie fire struck across the noctowl’s left wing, blasting away feathers and sending it down with a surprised “Hoo?”
It landed well, talons silently digging into the forest floor as it became half-obscured by greenery. Another inquisitive hoot sounded out – and then it was gone, brown plumage melting into the darkness as it decided this particular meal wasn’t worth the effort.
“Ho there!” came a distinctly upper-class voice from behind them, and Tor turned. Bright platinum curls flashed as two flashlights illuminated the approaching Rocket, and Ryan – Tor thought his name was Ryan, at least; he’d been introduced to like ten people today and he was freaking out – raised his arm to shield his eyes. “Ah, I had a feeling it was you three. Say, are the others nearby? I seem to have somehow wandered away from Mutsu and the rest.”
Tor opened his mouth, then closed it. After a second of silence his best friend did what he’d thought better of, cursing loudly.
Yeah, we’re definitely lost.
----------------------------------------
The fire crackled with a perverse merriment as Tor stared into it, the flames dancing in glee while his girlfriend searched for a vein on his arm to inject the Antidote. Stop anthro-whatevering the fire, dummy. It’s not happy you’re hurt, you’re just… scared.
His teeth clenched against the pain as the needle went in. Tor didn’t know why nurses and doctors were always blatantly lying; there was no pinch, just a straight-up stabbing pain from being literally stabbed. “There we go,” Lily commented as she withdrew the needle, the bulbous, thick-walled container now missing a fifth of its contents. “No idea why they bought the stuff that needs to be injected. Doesn’t the rubbing kind work just as good?”
Mojo snorted. “Don’t ask me, man. I guess it’s more gangster.”
Hah. There’s probably some actual reason out there, but I’d believe it. That tall, ugly guy with the scarred knuckles was scary, even more than the over-muscled people he surrounded himself with. A rattata shouldn’t be able to take chunks out of an electabuzz. That’s not… normal.
“They’re probably made for humans specifically,” Ryan broke in. “I believe Mutsu got your supplies from a specialty hiking shop, rather than a Pokémart.”
Tor grunted. “Well, it works well enough.” Already he could feel the cold, I’m dying feeling in his veins warming up. Didn’t think a Poison Powder from a venonat would feel so… bad. “Are we stopping for the night?” His eyes turned from the fire to the trees, fear still coiling in his gut despite the dragon heating itself by the fire – where it was receiving its own, spray-on medicine.
“I think that’s best,” Ryan replied. “We might be able to find the others, but we’d likely need to dig into our supplies of Repel to keep going. And while we have some leeway…”
“We should save it for sleeping, yeah.”
Mojo groaned. “Dumb idea to come out here after dark. You just had to open your mouth for all of us, didn’t you?”
The fire continued to crackle away. The feeling of eyes on his back was overwhelming, but Tor was doing his best to ignore the sensation – if there were actually something watching from nearby, one of their four Pokémon would have noticed. Unless it’s a haunter. Or any other ghost, for that matter. Or…
He sent the thought away with a shake of his head. “Is this what it’s usually like?” he asked, just to break the silence. “Being a part of this?”
The grunt smiled, somehow peppy despite the bug bites, both from Pokémon and smaller insects, peppering his face. “No, not at all. For the most part, it is… very simple. Standing in the right place, behind the right man. Doing paperwork and moving cargo, not unlike many other professions. Today was…” In the flickering firelight, there was something almost draconic to his strangely-proportioned features. He didn’t look like his bagon, not at all, but Tor suddenly felt sure that if he squinted, Ryan’s tight platinum curls would look like scales. His large eyes would become slitted dinner plates, his long nose and small mouth transforming into a snout. “…More like being a trainer.”
Tor shivered. Don't listen to the weird parts of your brain right now. You’re tired, you’re scared out of your gourd, you’re probably some kind of high from the Antidote… “You talk like you’ve been… what we are, for a long time.”
The Rocket Grunt continued to smile, staring into – or maybe past – the fire. “I have been… well, in spirit.” He made to continue – but before he could, the dragon curled at his side raised its head. Everyone froze.
And then a swooping shape flapped lazily across the treetops, passing over their heads seemingly without noticing their presence. It was the same size as the noctowl had been, but where that Pokémon had flown completely silently this one cut the air with two distinct sets of whisper-soft wingbeats. Silhouetted against the distant stars, all Tor could see was its general shape: a round, large body, and four wings shaped like those of a bat.
He shivered again. A golbat? Something else? If there were Pokémon left undiscovered in Kanto it would be here, in the depths of these dark woods.
The mysterious Pokémon went on its way, the small huddle remaining silent until Ryan again spoke. “I was raised in a family that has… very close ties to my current employers.”
“Tell me about it.”
Tor wasn’t sure why he asked. Maybe it was the desperate need to listen to something other than the heartbeat hammering away in his ears, or maybe he was actually interested, somewhere under the semi-rational terror.
Ryan’s expression smoothed. “I’m not certain that’s wise. This is shinobi territory; there could be any number of ears listening in.”
“I’m not asking for… compromising stuff, or anything. Just,” tell me what this is. I came into this through FtL, but is it even related? Have we been tricked? “The basics. The feel.”
“Hmm…” Ryan licked his lips, eyes finally straying from the fire. “I suppose I can do that. Nothing compromising…” The silence was deafening, full of imagined chitters and hoots and hisses. Tor’s spearow turned its head lazily, scanning the ground, but despite that his pulse refused to return to normal.
Ryan’s eyes passed over the wall of trees, so dense it was hard to tell one from another. “But what exactly is compromising? I am not ashamed of my heritage, nor have I ever done anything strictly illegal. So…” His smile returned. “Let us be frank. The first time I met Mister Apollo, Viridian’s current Gym Leader, I was five years old. My father was taking me to visit an old friend, Viridian’s previous leader, a man named Giovanni…”