Gasping, Blitzer reached the top of a forested hill. His legs throbbed from what felt like a week of non stop running, his heart racing about as fast. Cold wind pelted him in the face, having swept down from the coldest plains in Whitiara. The great north he was relieved to have left, yet couldn’t escape.

Much like the monster that chased him out of Luminity.

With a weak cry, he collapsed onto the grass, the smell of rotten mushrooms trickling into his nose moments after. It didn’t take long for tears to flow, now that he could think of what happened. All of it.

‘Skal… he tried to kill me… Right after I had to leave George behind…’

A ghostly foot kicked the dirt before his face, knocking several blades of grass into the Charmeleon’s mouth. Blitzer gagged, then spat them back out, hacking to get the taste of dirt off his tongue. A second later, the ghastly feet came close to standing on his claws.

“Y’know, they’re gonna hear you crying if they’re really that close to us. Just sayin’.” The Marshadow stretched her arms, wispy horns jittering. “‘Cause that’s the world we live in, y’know.”

Blitzer growled out a sigh. “You’ve been saying ‘you know’ for a week. It doesn’t make this any easier…”

“Yeah, but like. You wanna make it through this alive, right?” Marshadow asked, feet tip tapping on his claws to add insult to injury. “Believe me, I don’t like any of this either. Got some friends I came to Luminity with. Lost ‘em. And you’ve got the same problem, right?”

“Uh, yeah?” Blitzer struggled to his knees; the muscles in his legs cramping a little. The implications of what the Marshadow told him hadn’t crossed his mind yet. Neither did her repeated taps on his hands, for that matter.

“‘Cause I’m telling you, we’ve got a looot in common. Just gotta wade through all the muck first. And there’s a lotta muck to wade through.”

Blitzer shook his head as he managed to stand back up, his tail flame dimming as he held out his arms as if they were wet. He resembled a hulking monster at first glance. From a Caterpie’s point of view.

“Just stop for a moment, okay? I barely even know your name… what was it again, Sisu?”

She nodded. “Uh huh. Ain’t no other Marshadow named Sisu I know of.”

“And how come you look so familiar? Never even met you before this…”

Marshadow cracked up, her wispy horns flickering like candles in the wind. “Heh.”

Blitzer’s face soured. “What’s so funny?”

Sisu shrugged. “People say that to me kinda often, y’know. ‘Cause I’m a Marshadow, and they don’t see many Marshadow, but they sure remember Marshadow. Like in nursery rhymes, or fairy tales. Did you grow up in fairy land, by any chance?”

The Charmeleon sheepishly leaned back. “Uh… Agate? I’m from the Agate-”

“Gotcha.” Sisu winked at him, before sticking her hand right into the ectoplasm coming from her head. “But hey. Can’t get too distracted out here, we ain’t outta trouble. Ain’t anywhere near out of trouble. We gotta keep movin’.”

She stretched her stubby legs, before heading deeper into the forest. Blitzer breathed in deep, then exhaled a puff of smoke before following in her footsteps. The smoke washed the smell of mushrooms out of his nostrils, a welcome respite from the past few days.

‘I need a bath. I miss bathing…’

A sour look on his face, the Charmeleon trekked through the woods. Not with Sisu, but next to her. Any talk between them happened less often than not. Whatever the cause, Blitzer felt all the lonelier for it. The closest thing to a companion he had out here, and this was the most that came of it.

‘I really am a joke now, aren’t I? No friends, following someone I don’t know… ferals would see me as an easy lunch. World’s stupidest Charmeleon. Little boy looking for mom and dad….’

He squeezed his eyes shut, then rubbed them with the back of a claw. ‘I can’t cry. I can’t. George wouldn’t… he wouldn’t want to see me like this.’ he thought, as he waddled up to Sisu.

“Hey?”

The Marshadow’s head whipped around. “Yeah? What’s the holdup?”

“You said we had a lot in common, right?” Blitzer asked, all while keeping his tail from dragging on the ground. ‘“Can you tell me more about that?”

Sisu shrugged. “Don’t see why not. ‘S what I was getting to, actually,” she mumbled, the horns on her head converging into one. “You wanna know anything in particular?”

Blitzer gulped. “Right, uh… you said you also left your friends behind.”

A cold wind blew through the forest. “Yup. Hate to say it, but it’s true,” Sisu responded. “Came to Luminity with two of my besties. And we didn’t just come for laughs either, we had our reasons for being there. Like, two or three? Nah, two actually.”

The Charmeleon raised an eye. “What were they?”

“Easy,” the Marshadow giggled. “You’re one of ‘em, and your bestie is the other.”

Blitzer’s foot shifted back. “Wait, what? Bestie?!” he growled, baring his teeth. “How do you know about him? Have you been stalking me this entire time?!”

Sisu shrugged at him. “Ain’t me who did anything. ‘Tis more my besties who’ve been keepin’ an eye on you and your bestie. You should know ‘em, you’ve met both before.”

While the wind blew at his back, Blitzer’s tail flame flickered. “Who are you talking about? Do you mean… Terez?” he asked, saying the first name that came to mind.

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It didn’t take long for a second name to pop up; With how rare ghosts are in Eravate, Blitzer couldn’t help but find it peculiar that he had met two. Both with similar, disturbingly grotesque bodies of ectoplasm that flickered and pulsated at random.

“Don’t tell me you’re referring to that creepy old man, too…”

Sisu cracked up in an instant, and almost doubled over laughing. She had to clutch her stomach and sit down by a tree, as if she’d die from her ectoplasm splitting open otherwise.

“Creepy? Okay, I’ll give you ‘old man’ any day of the week, ‘cause Hein sure is a cranky old man alright. But he ain’t no creep. Ain’t his fault all you non dead Pokemon aren’t used to what ghosts are like.”

Blitzer’s face soured. “N-No, I know what normal’s like! And Hein is anything but!” He shook his head. “Why oh why did he have to live in Greenfield too? Why us?”

The Charmeleon stuck the tips of his claws into his mouth. “I don’t get him… What his whole business is. He could wipe out the whole village ten times over without any of us landing a scratch on him, and yet he-”

“Didn’t?” Sisu filled in, then snapped her fingers. “See what I mean with you and your weird prejudices? Hein ain’t a bloodthirsty killer. Sure, there’s that whole ‘Lone Eye’ thing, but that’s just mythmaking. He ain’t going around Eravate murdering folks he meets. And there’s a reason he moved into your town, y’know.” She stretched her arms out over her head again, but didn’t elaborate further.

Unsatisfied, Blitzer jumped out in front of her. “Hey, don’t just walk away! Why did he live in Greenfield?”

The Marshadow shrugged. “Eh. Never asked him directly. But he ain’t the type to just make changes like that to his life if it ain’t important. He’s not into fun and games.”

Blitzer let a low growl roll off his tongue. ‘You could say that again.’ “So he moved into Greenfield, because it was ‘important’. I don’t buy it. My hometown’s in some corner of the world no one cares about. We barely got any visitors, even.” The Charmeleon kicked a rock with enough force for his toe claws to dig in, shattering it into three pieces which scattered against a tree. “Unless you want to say that massive ghost with…” He paused to piece his thoughts together. “...the mouth in his stomach had a dream of running a dirty café, for some reason.”

“Uh huh.” Sisu jumped on a boulder jutting out of the terrain. “Blitz, was it? ‘S kind of what I’ve been tellin’ you.”

Blitzer pouted. “That’s true, but still! A-and it’s Blitzer, not ‘Blitz’!” he said, making finger quotes with one claw while leaning on the boulder with the other.

“Exactly,” the Marshadow added, her ectoplasmic horns flickering like embers. “Listen. You don’t like the guy, and I get that. He’s not easy to get along with. But lemme get one thing clear. I’ve had more than plenty of experiences with him and they’re more than positive. You don’t have to believe me, but can you at least take my word for what it is?”

She stared into his eyes with a shine passing through her pupils. Blitzerc licked his claws together while trying to bury his grimace. Sisu wasn’t a paragon of friendliness either, but she had saved his hide. Majorly. Where would he have been without her?

What would Skal have done instead?

He sighed. “I guess so…”

Sisu nodded. “I know it ain’t easy to accept. I mean, if I were you, and I had a big ol’ fire burning inside me… literally, I wouldn’t believe myself either!” she said, picturing said fire with her hands. “But you know what? We’ll figure this all out. Together.”

Patting Blitzer on the belly, the Marshadow looked over her shoulder. “Speaking of which, we got a looong way to go. Need to get outta here for sure,” she said, hopping off the boulder before going about her merry way, past a mossy patch of mushrooms.

Blitzer grimaced, tightened his scarf, then went after her. Unlike the Marshadow, he took great care to avoid grazing any mushrooms with his legs. Whether it’s because of the difference in size, the length of his toe claws, how awkward and unsure of himself he felt, he didn’t know.

“To where, though…?”

“Hm?” Sisu tipped her head backwards, as if her neck was a wet noodle.

Blitzer bit his tongue, drawing a little blood and nearly slipping on some lichen, before keeping himself steady.

“I- I want to know where we’re going. Away from here, yes, but where?”

The Marshadow twirled a tuft of ectoplasm around a finger, before pointing said finger ahead of herself. “North, probably… I’m saying ‘probably’, but we’re kinda committed now. We walked all this way already, and you know just as well as I do that going back is the mother of all bad ideas. Grandma of all bad ideas, even.”

A chill went up Blitzer’s spine. “North? Do… you’re not suggesting we’re hiking to Whitiara, right? In the winter? It’s already cold here!”

Sisu scoffed. “‘Tis only a little cold, Flamey boy. Ever look at yourself? Enough fire in those pipes to set the whole planet on fire, lemme tell you that.”

“T-that doesn’t say anything!” Blitzer grumbled. “I hate Whitiara! Especially the damn Smaugus that live there… I don’t want to go back, at all. It was bad enough the first time.”

Out of the blue, Sisu jumped around, backed straight into a tree, melded through said tree as if it was air, and came out intact on the other side. “Nah, ain’t going to say hi to the Smaugus, Flamey. Just between the two of us? No one that’s any good likes the Smaugus either. We’re gonna be talking to different people. People who you can actually trust.”

Blitzer smacked his tongue against the roof of his mouth. “And how do you know you can trust these people? How-”

“Easy!” Sisu said, backhanding a naked bush; the cane she struck cracked and splintered into several pieces. “Been in contact with these folks for a good while now. You probably don’t know her, but she’s got more than a good head on her legs.”

“...More than a good head on her legs?” Blitzer repeated. ‘Who even says something like that? I know you’re a mythical Pokemon and all, but… gosh!’

Sisu smirked at him. “Just wait and you’ll see.”

Their journey northwards continued, as the purple void spread through the sky. It filtered the sunlight coming through, casting a purple tinge onto the landscape below. Thus far, not all of the world had been affected. Not yet.

Nevertheless, prospects looked dim, and it wasn’t anything Blitzer enjoyed being reminded of. Not by the Alliancemen that likely tailed him, not by Sisu denying them entry to any village, not by the fact that he hadn’t walked across a proper road for the last few days.

The Charmeleon shook his head whenever any of the above crossed his mind. Civilised? Not in a million years. All things considered, he might as well have been feral. He was but a scarf and hunting for food removed from being one.

Past endless stretches of pines and lingonberry plants, over rocks and lumps, even the odd pile of snow here and there, Blitzer’s feet kept on going, crunching through the dead sticks littering the path. Feral Pokemon scurried away from the taillight, nearly bumping into Sisu in the process. She laughed about it. Blitzer wished he could.

After several hours, and closing in on the afternoon, the sticks on the road seemed to clear away… just in time for the ground to turn white. Blitzer sighed. Whitiara couldn’t have been much further. Maybe the boundary was still some days off, but they had stumbled upon the cold. And that wasn’t all they stumbled upon.

“Look,” Blitzer said, pointing at a suspicious pile of pine needles resting on the snow ahead. “That… that’s not natural, is it?”

“Nooope…” Sisu hummed. “Lookin’ pretty amateur, gotta say. Ain’t no way pine leaves fall that fast. Not like that. Sure as hell not ‘cause it started snowing.”

The Charmeleon turned to her. “We should go around,” he said, looking for an alternate way through the forest. The right side was incredibly hilly and steep, with hard rocky cliffs rising out of the snow like a Gyarados from the sea. Dead ahead was the trap…

…and an inky Ampharos pointing an electrically charged arm at his head.

“ACK!” yelped Blitzer as the lightning crackled through the air, striking his chest and surging into his blood. Warm energy coursed through him, loading his body full of energy.

In spite of this, the Charmeleon threw his jaws open, then spat a massive ball of flame back. It surged through the air, enveloping the pile of needles in its grasp as it exploded into a firestorm. Ampharos jumped out of the way, but its tail was caught in the blaze of the needles. They cried out in pain, and-

“BLITZ! Your left!” Sisu cried out.

Blitzer turned around… just in time for a Pangoro’s fist to connect with his face. Saliva shot out of his mouth as he was knocked sideways into the snow, his face burning.

“OI! Big son of a…”

In the brief window of time Blitzer had left before he passed out, he watched as Sisu’s stubby fists flew into something far larger, an audible snap thundering through the woods moments later. A dull roar struck his eardrums, followed by a big thud, followed by rustling shrubbery.

“GET HER! Get that little imp! The boss wants her too…”

He drifted into unconsciousness moments later.

* * *

Blitzer woke up to the sound of wheels turning, the side of his face and his back prickling with pain. Upon creaking his eyes open, he was met by the sight of a white forest, filtered through a metal cage.

“Eh?!”

He bolted up, grabbed onto the cage to pry his loose. Electricity shot through his body again moments later, this time with enough fury to put Zapdos to shame. He cried out in agony, before falling back onto the floor of the cage, whimpering.

“Look who’s woken up!”

“The prisoner? Who cares? It ain’t as if we got the other one…”

“Hey. Discipline here. Remember the code.”

Voices cackled all around him. Blitzer didn’t bother to open his eyes anymore. He was trapped. Caged. And Sisu wasn’t anywhere near him…

…As it turned out, she found somewhere else to be.

‘Oi!’

‘Eh?’

‘Blitz! ‘Tis me. Sisu. Gosh, I’m so damn sorry, you have no idea…’

‘What happened?’ he said, his tailflame energising a little in the cage.

‘They caught you… okay, don’t freak out, don’t poke up, keep that tailflame down. I’m currently hitchin’ along in your body, ‘aight? I ain’t doing anything weird in here, but I’m gonna talk to you like this for the time being.’

‘Wh-what do you mean? And what do we do now?!’

‘That’s what I’m tryin’ to figure out too, honestly…’

Shivers went through the Charmeleon’s body, as his captors drove him deeper towards the north…