FSE

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Scene 1: First Meeting

Cobalt the lucario walked down the slope leading to the low, forested floodplain that was the visual centerpiece of the countryside where he had been wandering these last two hours. He was hungry, and had been looking around for small fruit to forage, but had found none in this area so far. Now, he felt the oncoming prickles of thirst as well.

He needed to find something useful - it wasn't like he was carrying anything extra on his person - or he would risk spending the night hungry. The sun was getting on in its journey: 4:00 PM? 5:00? He wasn't sure, but it couldn't be too far off from that.

He trusted that the low-lying wooded area up ahead would hide some sort of creek or stream, and his sensitive ears soon-enough confirmed this, the trickling sound of water over rocks becoming unmistakable as he approached. Tall grasses and cattails swayed against him as he walked, the plants coming nearly to his chest spike in height - about three quarters of a meter.

Now we're getting somewhere, he thought to himself as he visually took in the area ahead.

A line of gray, dead trees lay in front of him at the woodland's edge, along the land's low point. Judging by this gloomy image, and by the smell of rotting wood on the breeze, Cobalt concluded that this area had flooded heavily sometime within the last two or three years: so heavily and consistently that even the trees along the creek had drowned. He anticipated that chunks of rotting wood would be a common sight up ahead, mingled into the still nearly marshy soil.

As he drew closer still, into the partial shade of the looming corpses of former plantlife, Cobalt encountered other sorts of undergrowth: small green plants, and mosses that clustered along stones and rotting wood. Beneath it all, the soil took on a rich, almost black color. Well, he thought to himself, if there's going to be fruiting plants around this place, this area should be perfect for them. I only hope they haven't all been flooded out too, or that they've had a chance to come back since the trees died.

He stepped forward among the dead trees - all deciduous by the look of them - and leaned his left arm against one as he took in his first view of the creek. It was a lazy, slow-moving thing, its waters somewhat muddy from what he could only suppose must be recent rains. A little mud didn't bother him, however - few pokémon had digestive systems that would ever care about such a minor impurity - and the water seemed quite drinkable in all other respects. It had only a slight earthy odor, and none of the chemical smells that he too often caught from streams nearer to human habitation.

This seemed like a fine spot to engage his "extra" senses more fully.

Cobalt stood upright again and closed his eyes, lifting one hand up near his chest spike and slightly out in front of it. The lumps of aura-sensitive flesh and muscle that hung along either side of his head, like so many locks of hair, began to energize with power. The lucario emitted a subtle blue color, the aura-sensing organs twitching and sliding up and down, side to side, as he slowly turned his body and scanned the area around him.

Though Cobalt's eyes were closed, the second sight provided by his aura powers had come into full swing. As he turned he could now see all of the energies of life - and the absences thereof - in the various plants of this floodplain. The dead trees were all but invisible, giving off only the faint aura of decay that came with the slow degradation of their trunks by the tiny fungi and bacteria that worked away at them. The grasses looked like waves of thin, prickly life - eager and fast-growing. Shrubs and other low-lying plants that had regrown since the flooding looked like puffy blue orbs, their edges fuzzing slightly in the breeze.

But further out, through some of the dead zone, and past a clump of other shrubs, was the smooth and abundant aura of a fruiting plant - or rather, several fruiting plants. They looked to Cobalt like a constellation of tiny orbs that shimmered with highly concentrated aura, all clustering around a more ordinary flow of aura that jutted up from the ground - more thickly and rigidly than the grasses, but less so than what he would expect from a small tree.

They must be berries that grow from canes, Cobalt thought. There's enough of them to have a satisfying dinner. The thought appealed to him.

Slowly opening his eyes but maintaining his aura focus, Cobalt navigated toward the berries in slow, methodical steps, crossing the distance of what was probably only forty meters with extreme graduality and caution, turning and re-scanning the area as he went. He did this because he had endured too many bad experiences where he had tried to rush for a piece of food, only to have a wild pokémon jump him while he was picking it or eating. He didn't want any surprises, and the power of aura would allow him to spot the danger well in advance as long as he didn't lose his focus.

Nearer he drew, without incident: twenty meters, ten meters... and then it happened. On the fringe of his aura vision, directly past the berries and up a hill, he noticed the form of a small, quadrupedal pokémon. It seemed harmless enough and was giving off only minimal energy signals, but the mere fact it seemed so unimportant made Cobalt all the more paranoid, and not without reason: it could be a psychic type deliberately masking its energies, or it could be a young fire type that could still cause him more harm than he had the resources to deal with right now.

Cobalt stood stock still, his eyes resolutely avoiding too long (or longing) a gaze at the berries before him, as he waited for the potential threat to pass.

The threat did not move.

Neither did Cobalt.

Neither did the threat.

"Fine," Cobalt murmured. He edged forward toward the berries, feeling the unknown creature's life energies remain as they were. Closer and closer he drew to his goal, until at last he was just a pace away from putting his foot down on the thorns of the berry canes.

Taking one last, long look at the unknown creature, Cobalt felt relieved to see its form start moving away from him, and back down the other side of the short hill from whence it had been watching.

"Good. Go away and stay away," he whispered. "I don't think sharing with you would be wise today."

He let his aura vision fade, his normal eyesight returning to dominance. The berries really did look promising: large and plump clusters of red goodness that seemed to have thrived in this wet environment. That they were edible to him was no longer even in question; he knew their type, a raspberry-like fruit well suited to consumption by any pokémon. Quickly, and not too discriminatingly, he plucked a handful of the ripest ones and began to eat them one at a time, enjoying the flavor briefly - before chomping down the rest of the handful in one decisive series of motions.

Cobalt's urge to savor the taste and his urge to eat and run had ended up at odds with each other here. It seemed logical to stay and savor since nothing appeared to be around... but a hunch was telling him to beware even still, and he knew quite well just how accurate his aura-enabled hunches usually were, so he went with it and ate rapidly.

"Why's it always something," Cobalt muttered. "Something's always... interrupting." He gobbled down more berries while performing another rudimentary aura scan around him.

That animal from before. A flicker of it. Not far. Less than twenty meters from his face. Coming closer. Along the same route he had taken walking here. The thing had gotten behind him in less than a minute.

"WHAT!?" Cobalt grumbled, letting two yet-uneaten berries fall onto the silty black soil. He instantly assumed a battle stance, putting his right leg back and gathering a sphere of aura between his spiked hands. "Show yourself."

To his chagrin, the creature not only didn't show itself; its energy signature seemed to disappear entirely. Not a pleasant moment for a lucario! He looked around in rapid, jerking glances, his aura scanning less accurate than normal because of the feeling of dread that was messing with his thoughts and urging him to scan too quickly and shallowly. He had to calm down, focus, re-center himself.

"ESPAAA!" came a loud cry as a pink, fox-like creature leapt from between the briars right behind cobalt, and slammed its forepaws into the small of his back. The blow struck him much more heavily than he would expected from a creature its size, and was no doubt augmented by telekinetic power.

Cobalt's first normal-sighted glimpse of his assailant came after the blow had landed, as he was staggering around and trying to avoid landing face-first in the dirt. The creature was undoubtedly an eevee-lution... and if the suddenly levitating leaves and twigs and the bright, pinkish-purple glow of energy around pokémon were any indication, it was an espeon.

"Dirty-fighting psychics!" the lucario said with a growl, taking just a moment to refocus the aura energy that he had lost grasp of when the espeon struck him. He enlarged the orb and got ready to throw it...only to see a veritable wall of those twigs, leaves, and other scraps of decaying plant matter heading toward him. He threw the aura sphere anyway, blasting a hole in them and causing the Espeon to yelp as its telekinetic faculties dropped the remaining objects and put up a barrier of force in front of itself instead, mitigating the sphere's blow.

"ESPAAA!!" it shrieked, eyes glowing brightly, and launched several rays of immaterial purple force at the lucario's torso.

"This thing invents its own moves," Cobalt acknowledged as he rolled aside. "Hey, evo-fox, why don't you try that tackling trick again?" he asked as he stood up and began backing away toward one of the dead trees. "I bet I'll make it more interesting for you if I can actually see you to play with you!" He lifted his left handpaw in a beckoning gesture, while his right glowed with aura and felt up and down the tree's trunk.

"Espa-eon," the aggressor replied with a shrug, before rushing toward him with an obvious and surprising level of comprehension.

Cobalt basically already knew that this pokémon either had a trainer right now or had been with one at some time in the past. Its perceptiveness about speech and about fighting were far more like a competitive trainer's pokémon than like anything he would normally see in the wild. On top of that, it was an espeon, and he hadn't seen a single one of those in the wild ever until now. He could only hope that playing to its pride as a trained pokémon might work, and it seemed so far that it might indeed.

As the espeon closed the distance between them, Cobalt took one repositioning step behind the tree, and, drawing a massive surge of aura energy into the muscles of his right arm, legs, and torso, he gave the trunk of the tree one single, hard-driven punch, into a spot that seemed to have some of the least life energy remaining.

Every muscle involved in this action glowed with aura power, each fiber rippling and swelling as its performance became needed during the motion of the blow. The bicep visibly grew about twenty percent larger as Cobalt's arm prepared to straighten and strike home. The tricep followed suit as the blow connected, and the musculature of his shoulders, chest, and pivoting legs underwent a similar expansion in the blue glow of his power. Crack! While the tree suffered the incoming damage, the rest of Cobalt's body began to ripple as well, the less-used muscles twitching and absorbing what was left from the aura intake.

Within a moment after the blow connected, the energy and growth had balanced themselves across the lucario's form, with only a modest emphasis on his arms. He looked as if he had, in an instant, added three or four months of a solid strength and aerobic training regimen to his entire body. It was by no means an outlandish-looking change in musculature, but it was more than enough to make it clear to anyone watching - anyone with a discerning eye, anyway - that Cobalt's body held more potential than his normally average lucario figure let on.

The espeon gasped - not because of the strength display, but because of the sundered tree trunk that was now sliding base-first in its direction. Unlike for a tree felled by careful woodcutters, this one was falling more toward Cobalt than toward her, because of how brutally he had punched it and how much of that force at transferred to the lower end of its trunk. The lucario appeared not to care, as he darted under the shadow of its falling form, putting it between the espeon and himself, and then jumped atop it after it hit the ground. The broken base of the trunk had landed mere centimeters from the pursuing espeon's face, and had only not struck because the espeon managed to halt its own movements in time.

The espeon, now quite angry, jumped onto the jaggedly broken end of the trunk and stared fumingly at the lucario. Cobalt was there atop of the trunk as well, crouching along the middle where the tree's limbs started to fan out, his muscles throbbing and pulsing with the aura, and his face wild and highly entertained. He threw back his head and laughed uproariously at the espeon.

The grumpy espeon's eyes glowed purple, and a voice - feminine and bitter - entered Cobalt's mind: Sheesh, were you your old trainer's Strength HM lackey?

The laughing stopped, but only for a moment. Cobalt blinked a few times as he studied what was happening. He hadn't had many psychics communicate with him like this before. It felt intrusive, but not enough that he wanted to hurt the espeon over it. So he kept laughing at her - he trusted now that it was a her.

What kind of an idiot are you!? the espeon continued. You could have gotten us both squished!

"Listen," said Cobalt after giving himself a few more moments to finish laughing, "even you could lift this tree, if your telekinesis is as good as I think it is. It's dead, dead, dead... been that way for years. It's lost a lot of its water weight and its sturdiness.

Even so, I still do not understand what you find so funny about all of this. The espeon curled her tail around herself in contempt.

"Your face," said Cobalt. "Your face was priceless!"

Hmph... what ever could my face have shown you that you find so hilarious?

Cobalt paused for a moment, smiling widely, and lifted his chin in a slight sense of personal pride. "Your face said, 'Wow, he's like some sort of breeding stud.'"

The espeon flinched and growled at him. It did not! What on earth are you talking about!

"Listen, lady, I grew up in a pokémon breeding center. I know that look when I see it."

The espeon continued glaring balefully in his direction, but made no reply. Cobalt shrugged and stretched his arms in front of him, giving his sinews a subtle but deliberate flexing as he did so.

"...Then there's the fact you climbed up on the trunk and didn't immediately continue attacking me, yet you weren't really that afraid anymore either." Cobalt stopped stretching, looked her way, and smiled. "Sheesh, you stupid pink thing, I didn't think Attract was a move I knew!"

Oh, shut it! grumbled the espeon. W-what was the point of striking that tree anyway? A-and what happened to your body? I've never seen a lucario do that, a-and it startled me, that's all!

"Oh, I see. So you liked this little trick I did with my muscles." Now Cobalt flexed and stretched in a more obviously luxurious fashion.

Liked... what!? No!

"...Well," said Cobalt, both his voice and posture growing noticeably more serious, "it's all in the proper application of aura." Then, more gloomily, he added, "I used to be a lot better at it than I am now. Time has not been kind to me about that."

Now the espeon blinked several times and pawed at the ground in frustration. You're such a confusing person. Why're you making this into such a... thing! It isn't appropriate to be having this kind of conversation, r-right after...

"And how isn't it appropriate?" asked Cobalt, turning away and giving his arms a bowed-out stretching behind his head, this time looking somehow more exhausted than flirtatious.

The espeon frowned and narrowed her eyes. Don't you understand? This is the wild. I want that food you are trying to claim. That's what I attacked you for. Don't you understand that?

"Easy, killer," said Cobalt, waving a hand at her to try to calm her. "Easy. There's no need to fight anymore." He looked to the horizon along the hills, and toward the orange blaze of the setting sun, and then sincerely back toward her. "I had hoped at least that much was obvious."

The espeon paused, her eyes flickering with purple energies, before they slowly closed, tension melting from her form as they did. She sighed, her breath a quiet puff in the slight breeze of the evening.

* * *

Scene 2: Campout

The campfire which Cobalt had set up for the both of them, in a clearing not far from the berry patch, was large and inviting, plenty big to have accommodated two or three other pokémon if they had been around to see it. His enhanced muscle tone had made gathering the wood easier than usual, although now his body was slowly returning to its normal, unassuming size. He always shrank back to normal far too quickly when he did this, anymore...

...So, the espeon thought at Cobalt as he came walking back carefully with two large armfuls of berries for their meal. Do you live around here, or are you just on your way through?

"The second," the blue one replied. "I'm only a passer-by. I haven't been anything else in... well over a year now. How about you? Where's your trainer?"

I haven't got a trainer, Espa replied, turning her head away.

"Mm hm," he pursued, drawing close to her, "and you expect me to believe you evolved into an espeon without one."

Hey... watch it," she whined. "I never said I didn't have a trainer before. I only said I haven't got one now. Do you understand?

"So, like I thought, we aren't that different."

Perhaps not. The espeon bowed her head and let out a quiet sigh. Mm?

The smell of the berries was getting more exciting to the espeon. Cobalt had now crouched in front of her, grinning, putting a bounty of them in muzzle's reach of her. That enticement done, he carefully dumped a little less than half of the berries onto the ground for her, spread out a bit so that she could choose which to taste first. The lesser amount that he gave her was not a gesture of dominance, and both of them intuitively knew it: lucarios simply needed to eat more than the eevee family did, and no arguing needed to occur on the point.

I still don't understand why you're doing this, the espeon indicated, nosing at one of the large berries Cobalt had provided.

"The wild isn't one battle after another you know," said Cobalt, sitting down cross-legged beside her and placing his own berries on the ground in a nice, edible pile. "The wild is survival, and we have to stick together."

We?

"Pokémon who've got no trainers, but still aren't dumb as rocks. You and me, either of us could make it fine in human society. You know that; I know that. I suspect we've both got our reasons for not being there. I certainly know I do." His final sentence came out in a much grimmer voice than the rest.

So... after I attack you, you repay me with food? She was eating ravenously while she thought this at him, downing berry after berry with minimal delay.

"Slow down a little," he advised her. "We shouldn't gorge too much tonight. If we eat them right, we can make the berries in this patch last for several days. There's a lot there... and if any parts of that creek have fish..."

The espeon did slow down her eating, but she remained resolute about her side of the conversation. You didn't answer me, you know.

"Hmm. Yeah." The lucario smiled. "I guess I didn't."

And? Are you going to?

"I dunno. It's kind of late now."

The sun just set and we have plenty of time to talk.

"Yeah, but I don't know if I want to. Maybe we'll talk in the morning, after I've had a chance to see whether or not you try to kill me in my sleep."

What!? I would do no such thi-

"Yeah, but I can bet you'll be trying to read my mind while I sleep tonight. You psychic types are so predictable. I don't care. You won't find anything I can't defend."

The espeon blinked a few times and thought only to herself, Won't find anything he can't defend?

"Good night, silly pink thing," the lucario said warmly, and curled up not far from the fire. "It's nothing personal, really, but I go to bed with the sun now. That's my way."

Fine...

The espeon curled up as well. Didn't even ask for my name, or give me his...

* * *

Scene 3: Cobalt's Dream

A dark void with purple, writhing lines in the background. Cobalt the lucario wandered along its invisible floor, looking around, desperately calling out his trainer's name. "Turner? Turner, where are you?" The lines of purple looked like so many worms, and his trainer was nowhere to be seen.

The invisible floor grew more solid, and rougher, the void beneath him filling in with sand. The sand felt hot, and bone-dry, the stuff of a vast desert.

"TURNERRR!" Cobalt shouted, his voice carrying far across the sands, but receiving only wind and dust as a response.

Then, up ahead he saw an oasis. He walked toward it. A metallic glimmer caught his eye - his aura vision revealed the pale blue and sparkling white of Turner's life force! Turner, in his wheelchair, was up ahead! He had found him!

Cobalt ran for all he was worth, rapidly closing the distance. As he neared the oasis, Turner's body came into clearer view. He didn't look thin and emaciated anymore. He looked... healthy, as if he had grown up without any of the problems. His arms looked strong, and his posture did not sag. Yet still... still he sat in that wheelchair.

"Turner?" Cobalt asked as he approached from behind. Still Turner did not move, not even one twitch of one muscle.

Cobalt circled around to the front of his trainer's chair and looked again - and flinched in a scream.

Turner's face was a horrid visage of cracked, dry sand. The mouth was open and had no teeth or tongue. The eyes were shut, and Cobalt dared not touch them. Then the eyes shot open, the eyeballs real and not made of sand, but fixed in a dilated look of terror. Then the eyes, too, turned to sand, and the rest of Turner's body followed suit.

In one horrifying instant the sand took him, his body crumbling and sliding downward, leaving only his old white button-up shirt, his khakis, and that infernal wheelchair, baking there beneath the desert sun. Cobalt rushed toward the collapsing sand, trying to hold it together, but felt it slip through his handpaws, bits of it clinging to his steel spikes and somehow causing him fiery pain as long as the sand remained stuck there. He brushed the sand off of himself, and found human blood underneath it. He ran to the oasis to try to wash it off, but the oasis had dried, the sun having suddenly scorched it into a boiling hot mist. Frantically he rubbed at the backs of his hands, trying to get it off, trying his hardest, but it wouldn't go away. In a last-ditch effort he thrust both of his hands into the sand beneath him, and felt a rumbling as the entire world beneath him gave way. Falling, falling...

...Cobalt's physical eyes shot open, and he saw the stars above him. Still night.

"...Useless dreams," Cobalt said angrily, but quietly.

He rolled over onto his side and willed himself back to sleep, without further thought about it.

* * *

Scene 4: Basic Revelations

"Cobalt," the lucario said proudly as they breakfasted on the rest of the berries, the embers of their former campfire still dying around them.

And my name is Espa, the espeon admitted.

"Heh, sounds like your trainer knew exactly what he wanted to do with you from the moment he got his hands on you."

Yes, he did. He did most things quite methodically... in a sense.

"So, did you do any mental probing while I was sleeping? Any other psychic cheating I should know about?"

What? N-no, of course not.

The lucario swished his tail. "I hope for your sake that you didn't. All that went through my mind while I slept was nightmares." He downed the last of his berries.

I see...

"Hmm? C'mon, fess up - did you or didn't you?"

I didn't... try... but I still felt waves of panic from you, at one point during the night. I'm sensitive to these things. It... kind of made me want to help you.

"I'm sure it must have," said the lucario, dryly. "Like I said, psychic types usually think they can fix everything in a person's mind. Well, I'm sorry to inform you, but you probably can't."

Why not at least give me a chance? the espeon replied, taken aback.

"Because I don't know you that well yet."

I... I don't think that's fair.

"And why don't you? Finish your food, we should get moving soon."

You shouldn't tell me what to do. I don't know if I'm traveling with you or not.

"Yeah, I'm sure you want to stay at it alone, but you know we stand a better chance in a food-poor area like this if we work together. That's just the math of life."

Cobalt... the espeon's psychic voice seemed exasperated now. Her eyes flared a bright purple. Please don't be like this... let me help. You've been very kind to me, especially after how aggressively I acted, and I want to return the favor.

The lucario paused for a moment and looked her over before responding, even going so far as to scan her with his aura sense. After several seconds of that he returned his gaze to normal and looked down at her nose. "I think I'd like to start by telling you a bit about myself, before I let you get too much into my head. Does that sound fair?"

Yes... I suppose so.

The lucario nodded, and continued to explain: "We'll pass the time with it. We can both tell each other about our pasts as we walk around looking for our next source of food. I'll go first, since it's obvious you wanna know, but then you will tell me about yourself too, or there'll be no probing inside of old Cobalt's head... do you understand that?"

The espeon sat up on her haunches, having lately finished the last of her own meal. Yes, I suppose that's fair enough. There's just one thing I don't understand.

"And that is?" he asked as they began to walk.

Why would you offer to go first? You seem even more reserved than I am, if that's even possible..

"I have nightmares about this stuff," Cobalt said, finally confessing some real concern for his own mental health. "You've felt a bit of that. I might as well tell you what happened to cause them."

I see.

"So, listen well. I'll try not to be sobbing by the end of it like some wimp."

Don't worry, replied the espeon, picking her path carefully through some tall grass as she followed behind the lucario's taller body, I shall listen.

"And hey, I'll be honest. It doesn't much matter to me if you don't pay proper attention the first time. I've never had a chance to tell this story to anyone yet... not to anyone who could intelligently respond, anyway, and wasn't part of the whole situation in the first place... so if you don't pay attention, just ask, and I'll repeat stuff for you... okay? I'm not bored of telling this one yet..."

* * *

Scene 5: Cobalt's Story

When I was younger, a riolu, I lived in a nursery at a pokémon daycare. My parents were both lucario too. Breeding stock, they'd been that way all their lives - nothing unusual about it. The pokémon breeders there specialized in our kind. They always said lucario were the greatest links between the natural world and the capacity for humanlike thought. I... don't know if they were right, or not. But they were good people, a man and his wife in their forties, at my earliest memories.

One day when I was about three years old, a younger couple, both around thirty, came to visit the daycare with their son, who was in a wheelchair. Turns out the dad was a low-tier professional pokémon trainer. He did well enough to get by, but not enough that he'd ever be known outside of his region. He'd come to our particular daycare on a recommendation from a friend. The son wanted a pokémon to have as a companion, and he loved lucario. He... after I got to know him, he always said that something about our aura powers made him feel... peace.

...So before too long, I ended up meeting the kid, as did three of my brothers and sisters. The kid picked me because I was the most wide-eyed and energetic out of all of 'em. He wanted someone who would be really alive, full of life and outgoing... I still wonder to this day if he made the right choice if that was truly what he wanted... but I don't think his choice was bad in the grand flow of things. We were... meant to be together, I think. That boy, the human who adopted me... his name was Turner Casey.

I found out within a few hours of adoption that Turner had an inborn disease affecting his muscles. There was nothing any doctor could do to stop it, only to delay it. As Turner aged, he would grow weaker and weaker, and his body would eventually give out on itself. The best death he could hope for would be for his heart to stop in his sleep.

I... was kind of lost at first, after the adoption. I missed my brothers and sisters, and I didn't get much contact with my parents either, though the Casey family did at least take me back to see them from time to time. My parents were... quickly distant, honestly. They knew their lot in life was to see their children adopted away. I still have very mixed feelings about the entire pokémon breeding trade, but... I should focus on my story.

Turner was twelve when he first adopted me. I was told at that time that he'd probably have seven or eight more years to live. Not likely to have much more than that. And as I grew up... and eventually evolved... you'd better believe I tried everything I could muster to see if I could reverse those processes in his body. The power of aura couldn't change it. It... it was like that was the way his body was meant to be... like sending power into him only made his body conform more smoothly to its fate...

I can see you're already saddened, and that you know where this is going. I'll be brief, for now...

By the time Turner reached his eighteenth birthday, his body looked far too much like a dead man's. I won't go into the details, as it hurts just to remember it... but he wasn't doing good. Everyone knew it, and everyone wanted to deny it, though that was almost impossible by that point.

Even in the state he was in, Turner got the idea that he wanted to take a trip with us, like a real pokémon trainer. See, his parents had helped him into the wild to catch some pokémon that were truly his own. There were four of us in total, not even enough for a full regulation belt, but it was something. The pokémon were me, two machops, and the kindest-natured mankey I think I've ever seen. His parents had set him up a small in-home gym where he could train us. Obviously he wasn't competitive at all, but he loved seeing us fighting types around, always training and getting stronger...

So, that trip. After begging his parents for weeks, he managed to get their permission to go. Why they let him go without a big argument I'll never understand. I thought at the time that maybe they knew it was their son's way of having his own death march, and they were at peace with that... but I was wrong. They didn't understand the risks, couldn't accept them a reality. They were still too much in denial from what the doctors' checkups had been telling them.

Turner took the four of us pokémon, unsupervised by other humans, and went out into the wild, toward a nearby mountain with a pretty pond near its base. We'd been out there plenty of times in years past with his mother chaperoning, but we'd never walked the whole way. I pushed him along in his wheelchair, because he couldn't walk on his own anymore... at all. He wanted to see the lake again, and just spend some time resting there with us. I... I was really the one in charge of chaperoning that trip, I guess you could say. His mother... said she trusted me for that, because I could act and think so much like a human when needed.

He never acted like the trip was going to be a "one last time" kind of affair, but we all knew there was a distinct possibility that it could be the last fun outing he ever had. Even the mankey had enough empathy to feel concerned about Turner's health, and spent the whole trip looking downright sad. I tried to be strong, and tried to remind myself that whatever happened after that day, at least Turner would have had his chance to be with us on our own.

Despite being familiar with the area, we made it to the lake only after a lot of effort. Turner got the idea to go adventuring like a real trainer, and instead of sticking to the human roads, we cut across through the public forest on the way to our destination. That part of the forest hadn't seen nearly enough traffic in recent years for this idea to make sense... but it was what our trainer wanted, so we obliged. I had to lift Turner out of his chair and hold him to my torso in order to navigate some of the overgrown paths to the lake area, while the machop carried the chair behind... fallen trees in the area had left the old, disused paths in terrible shape, particularly as we got closer to our goal. At one point I sat Turner down carefully against a tree and protected him with my body while the machops punched a large trunk to pieces, so that we could get through along an old path without having to navigate around a huge thicket of briars. The mankey helped move the fallen bits of trees. I've had intensive workouts before, but that day was a lot more physically demanding than I had expected, just to get up to the lake. But the worst was yet to come...

We got to the lake, and Turner was satisfied. We made a campfire and some snacks with chocolate and marshmallows, which Turner's mom had packed for us. The 'chops played around in the water, and the mankey went climbing trees. Turner and I sat there by the water, reminiscing about old times, his face looking relaxed, but in a way which was kind of... forced. I could tell he was worried about the future, and I stayed right there with him.

Our long conversation slowed as we both zoned out into introspection, our eyes watching the glimmering of the water as the sun moved on in the sky. As it got on toward sunset, a horrible feeling struck me, and I asked Turned how he was feeling. He didn't respond at first. Then his eyes slowly opened, and his mouth gaped downward. H-he... could barely speak. He could only get a little air out to try to say my name, a-and...

...I'll tell you the rest later. I don't know how much later.

* * *

Scene 6: Steel

Cobalt the lucario looked away firmly, fighting back his tears and his grief - steeling his body and mind against the weight of the memories as he walked onward, his pace quickening. The grass still parted fairly smoothly with each of his steps. The method and care in his movements had been only slightly reduced by his tension - but reduced nonetheless.

I'm... sorry, said the espeon, trotting along behind him, unsure whether or not she should push him to give the full details of his story's ending at this time.

"That's really... all there is to say for now," said Cobalt, "all of what you need to understand to get the gist. The boy - Turner - my trainer and friend... he died. He died that very day. He died of a disease no human doctor could correct, and no lucario could even fathom the purpose of."

Espa looked genuinely mortified, her ears drooping low and her posture sagging as she lay down flat on her belly, looking up at her tense, blue companion. How horrible...

"He couldn't... ever... do the things he wanted to... not by himself. He was sick. He was frail from the very beginning, yet still he managed to enjoy being around us Fighting types. He liked seeing us grow. He said we had the muscles and the strength he'd never be able to have himself. His Aura was so strong, so unbelievably strong for a human's... Why did he have to be born that way!?

Cobalt's own aura was crackling and spiking, as if the energies were ready to lash out and blast something, but had no idea which direction to go.

Just to be clear here, the espeon responded, your trainer had... muscular dystrophy?

"I-I don't even remember what they called it!" Cobalt deflected. "I..."

...What is it?

"I remember seeing him collapse in his chair for the last time... carrying him all the way back to the city, the doctors being unable to do anything... his parents blaming me..."

Oh my.

"I swore off human society then and there. I will never serve another human. I will never do it.". He aimed his muzzle at the ground, his body quivering as he walked. "I don't hate humans, but neither do I want to be around any others for long."

The psychic type watched in sorrow, her mouth agape, as she followed in his wake. The espeon could feel his whole pyschosoma shivering with grief and rage - the sadness and anger flowed along his nerves, like alcohol and caffeine simultaneously imbibed, their effects conflicting and struggling into a mass of pain.

After a moment of this, Cobalt collected himself and stopped shaking altogether, lifting his face and giving the espeon a hard, determined look, his lucario eyes aiming directly into her own.

No wonder he was such a rough one...

Cobalt, I'm sorry, the espeon said.

"It's not..." Cobalt muttered. "It's not your fault. Stupid psychic... trying to take the blame for everything..."

That's not-

"Hey, don't lie to me," Cobalt interrupted, his expression turning again into a scowl of confrontation, albeit one tempered by the stings of his still-present anguish. "Don't lie to me... you know what's going on."

No, said Espa, genuinely, I'm afraid I don't.

"I'm not blind to matters of your kind of energy, you know," said Cobalt, brushing some particularly tall grass aside. "When you tap into my grief the way you're doing right now, I feel yours too."

I... I do have some grief, yes.

"Some. Uh-huh. Some. All that, that yawning black hole of regret you have. I'm not as precise as you psychic types... I don't know details, and I only get flickers and emotions and images, but I KNOW you're holding back a great pain as well, and you think it was YOUR fault."

W-well...

Cobalt's voice entered a crescendo, eventually ending in outright shouting: "So don't play it off coolly when I say you blame yourself! Like a lot of psychics do! Because you honestly think you should be able to change the minds and beliefs and decisions of the people closest to you. You can't!" The lucario was shivering.

Subconsciously, for Cobalt, this was the only way he knew to cope now: lashing out at his traveling companion. The alternative - going deeper into himself, really feeling and addressing what happened on Turner's last day - would mean a pain too great for him to moderate. He would break down, succumb to his greatest inner weakness, and then what? What might Espa do then? What would happen to the respect she had gained for him.

No, he would turn the battle of wills right back onto her. If he would make her doubt herself, even half as much as he doubted himself, he would have no trouble keeping his pride.

And his efforts seemed to be working. Espa froze there, speechless - sat down on her

haunches and slowly closed her eyes.

Stop, Cobalt... please.

"Well, what's wrong, you can't handle honesty?"

Stop... speaking," she said calmly.

Cobalt indeed stopped speaking, and looked at her - at the purple glow around her face that was expanding to encompass all of her body, and slowly generating a tube of energy that was moving toward him.

"What's that?" asked Cobalt, flinching into a defensive stance and coating himself in a blue glow of aura. "Hey, what're you doing?"

Calm down. I'm not attacking. I'm... offering.

"Hmm?"

Let's just stop... right here, and rest a while... okay? I want to share my story with you right now, so that you don't keep feeling like I'm trying to one-up you.

Cobalt kept his place for a moment, his eyes narrowing with harsh consideration. "Do exactly as you said," he eventually agreed, and sat down. "Just don't forget to break us out of whatever you're doing if some wild pokémon attacks."

Cobalt sighed and let the psychic's energy flow into him, touching his mind down to what seemed like the very stirrings of his soul. But most of the flow remained at the surface: thoughts and images came at him, transferred from Espa's memories and dreamed at him, in a way in which he too could feel them every bit as vividly as the psychic type could. He felt the world of his experience narrowing, his aura giving several energized flickers as his mind and hers became, on at least some level, one.

There was a grand flaw in his plan to defend his pride, he now knew. A flaw so obvious that he should have thought of it much sooner. Espa wasn't just a psychic type: she was a psychic type who cared. She already knew by now just how much he was protecting himself. A charade like he did would never work. As the images thickened, he could feel himself becoming more resigned to fate of eventually being helped by her, even though he would prefer to only help himself. Espa's thoughts whirred against his own, her mind touching his emotions with a curiosity and compassion that he could feel. He wanted to fall into that touch, and cry like a baby... but for now, he refrained, even though the opportunity was right there. He would not have himself falling apart too fast. He would let himself open up by his own decisions, and on his own terms... but he would indeed let himself become open, if she kept this up.

* * *

Scene 7: Espa's story

A view of Celadon City from a TV news helicopter - then, a close-up view of the Celadon City Game Corner. A young man of fifteen years of age stepping inside of it with his backpack and trainer's hat. He has brown hair that hasn't been kept properly in weeks, splaying all over and only barely and partially being contained within the hat. He looks sure of himself... indeed, he looks too sure.

This is Alex Makato, my trainer. He is about to win me from the Celadon Game corner on Kanto.

The boy plays the slots and hits it big, jumping in triumph with one hand in the air as he whoops and hollers in his excitement. "Right on, at last!" he says, grabbing up his tokens and stepping over to cash in. The clerk awards him with a specially marked pokéball with a sticker in eevee's likeness. The boy picks up the ball, and grins.

A flash of white, a sense of time passing rapidly forward. The date is three months later, and the boy is researching the finer details of how to make his eevee evolve as he desires. "You see this, Espa?" he says to the fox-like pokémon, pointing out a sleek looking eeveelution with a red gem in its forehead, "you're gonna be one of these! Say it with me: espeon! Es... pe... on!"

"Eeeeevee," the fluffy little pokémon agreed.

Another flash, this time to a scene in an alleyway. "Well, do you have it or not?" Alex asks boldly of a plainly clad gentleman by a fire escape nearby.

"Of course I've got it. All thirty doses, ya sick bastard." There's a tone of manly approval in the fellow's second sentence - a bit of playful ribbing to lighten the mood of their decidedly illegal deal.

"I'm not just talking about those," says Alex, stepping forward. "I'm also wondering about the ones for me. Do you have those? I want to see them."

The man stares at him tensely. Inside one of the pokéballs at the young trainer's belt, a recently evolved espeon squirms, feeling the waves of their thoughts, and the threats of the dangers Alex is inviting into his life by interacting with this man.

"...Fair enough. Here it is." The man takes a minimalistically marked bottle of pills out of his right pants pocket. Then he opens them, giving Alex a glance. The boy nods in approval.

"Knew I could depend on you," says Alex, rummaging around in a reusable grocery sack he has with him. "Business is business after all."

"Indeed it is, Mr. Makato."

Alex draws a pokéball from the sack - another prize eevee ball, fresh from the Game Corner, unopened and ready to meet its lucky winner.

"You're quite the gambler for someone your age," the man comments, taking the ball and offering Alex a plain briefcase containing his goods.

"I play to win, sir," says Alex, grinning like a dork, in a way quite inappropriate to the situation.

"Mmm. Well, take care. If you have more eevee to provide, you know how to find me."

"Will do. I hope your profits skyrocket."

"Oh? Was that an intentional pun?" the man says, sounding sinister yet somehow good-natured about it.

"Yeah, a little. I like the services you Rockets provide. Think of it as my way of expressing affection for the organization, eh?"

"Mm, understood. Take care."

Another flash. The boy's bedroom, early in the summer after his public schooling has ended. No one is home but he and his pokémon. The espeon, his espeon, is sitting by the windowsill, looking down onto the street, one flight of stairs below.

"What're you talking about, Espa?" the boy demands, obviously frustrated, his face flushed and his hands gesturing wildly as he stands up from his formerly relaxed position on his bed. He is in his pajamas - blue polka-dot - and can't seem to stand up totally straight.

I mean that I am leaving you, the voice echoes in his mind. I mean that I cannot keep supporting this trade you are involved in... and I can't keep watching you sink further into this... addiction you've gotten yourself into.

"You're only bluffing, Espa. You can't do something like that. You wouldn't. You're scared without me. You've said so yourself!"

I... yes...

There is a pause in their conversation, Alex looking dopey and grinning in her direction. "Seeee?" he finally asks to break the silence, and starts laughing.

It isn't like that, she firmly replies.

"How isn't it? I make you have a purpose... don't you remember that?"

That... is very nearly true, she admits. But there is one thing you are not taking into account. A cloud of purple mental energy begins to form around her, and her eyes and gemstone glow.

"Huh?" He feels his arms and legs being restrained. Then, he is lifted up into the air before being forced down onto his back, his entire body falling level onto the bed and the energies continuing to hold him there. "Espa, stop this! You can't get your fix without me either!"

I haven't been taking them recently. Not since the third eevee. I've only been tricking you into thinking I did. Your mind is easily fooled... you keep it clouded so often.

"Whaa? Mmmnf!" His mouth is forced shut by another telekinetic strand of energy.

Don't you see? I do need you. But, Alex... you aren't you when you're like this. You're... you're taking my trainer away and replacing him with something... someone... lesser. She levitates toward him and hovers above him, sending the mental ultimatum directly into his psyche while he can see her. It's time to decide. If you won't give up your rare candy for humans, and stop these foolish dealings with a criminal syndicate... I will leave this house and never return... and don't even THINK about trying to put me back in my ball. I will tear that thing from your hands and leave you crying.

She released his mouth. "Damn, Espa... you've gotten scary," Alex said.

Well? she asked, still circling him. Do you abandon this fool's course of action?

"Yeah! ...Of course I do."

Another pause. The espeon's eyes narrow. Then Alex screams as a heavy, intangible weight pushes down even harder on his chest.

You liar! the pokémon cries out. You have no such intention! None at all... WHY!? Her psychic control goes poltergeist with the upsurge of emotions: pictures fly off walls, his two-day-old half-consumed fast food drink cup pops its lid off and tips off his desk, spilling a brown cola all over the beige carpeting.

"That stuff I use is just... really good, Espa. I'm sorry? What can I say? You don't like it, why don't you get lost for a while? See how you feel?"

A pause yet again - then, a blinding flash of white light and eeries purple. The sound of the pokémon's enraged, audible cry fills the room: "Espa... ESPEEEEEE!!"

Then the window shatters, while Alex cries out, "Hey!! WAAAAIT! I didn't mean it!" But his voice and thoughts are still as lazy and as uninterested in change as ever.

* * *

Scene 8: Questions and Answers

"Well, he's still alive, right?" Cobalt said immediately as the psychic communication session ended, his eyes still closed from taking in the experience.

I dearly hope so. With the Rockets and the way he conducted himself around them, there's no guarantee.

"So... how long has it been?"

Three months, only. I'm a little lost. I've been running from him, and from the Rockets too, now...

"The Rockets? Don't tell me..."

He told them everything, about how I can rig games from kilometers away while under the influence of that... substance. They came looking for me. Apparently other espeon don't have the same reaction. Lucky me, a special breed, whom they want to exploit. One of many...

"I am so sorry to hear that." The lucario's tone indicated that he entirely meant it. He scratched a gash in the dirt in front of himself, and marked it with a mote of his own aura power for use in finding their way back toward the riverside later. It was not the first such mark he had made during their walkings today. He liked having an easy-to-see path available in case things went horribly wrong, and Espa had not objected to this in the slightest.

So you see, this is why I spend so much time in unpopulated areas, said Espa as Cobalt worked, her tail swishing side to side while she sat on her haunches. I'm afraid that I've not been back to see Alex, ever. It just isn't safe.

Cobalt finished his energy work, and then paused for a moment and blinked a few times. "But... wait. He's from Celadon. You're not even on Kanto anymore."

Vermillion City's harbor is easy enough to make use of when you can trick people's minds. That's true of most places.

"I see." He scuffed some dry leaves over the spot where he'd made the mark, and got a look at it with his aura vision. It would do fine.

That done, the lucario opened his physical eyes again and looked around, for the first time properly taking in the surroundings of where they'd been walking just before Espa's story began: Cobalt's field of vision lay full of wild grass and knobby little hillsides, in every direction except for one, where the outskirts of a small town were just visible over some green hilltops in the distance.

"Well, there aren't that many trees around here," said Cobalt, taking the topic of discussion away from Espa's past faster than she had expected, "so I'm not going to expect much more in terms of fruit. This wilderness is junk for pokémon that don't eat grass and small herbs. I think we were better off in that creek's floodplain, even though I'm not normally too comfortable hanging around a source of water for days at a time. You never know what you'll eventually run into."

Espa looked at him, slightly confused, and not knowing whether to feel respected or disrespected. A quick scan of the surface of the lucario's mind suggested to her that he meant nothing bad by the change of subject - merely that he was staying focused on survival. She had to admit that she couldn't blame him much. Still, it seemed awfully convenient for him to jump so quickly back into the present and away from their pasts...

Well, you're probably onto something with the idea of searching along that creek some more, replied Espa, but there are other useful things in this part of the countryside too.

"Oh? Like what? And what's the human settlement off in the distance?"

W-well... The espeon found herself getting nervous, and hated the fact. You said that you and your trainer, Turner... you said he liked hot springs, yes?

"That's right, but what about the town?"

The town is a small place. I scoped it out a little as I made my way in this direction. Its biggest landmark is a small winery. They call it Burgundy Town.

"Okay," said Cobalt, nodding, "and the hot springs?"

The espeon scrunched her nose, forcing an air of assertiveness again. Yes, the hot springs. If you would kindly let me have a bit more control over the flow of this conversation, I can explain to you exactly how...

The lucario sighed and shook his head, causing Espa to stop mid-sentence.

"...I feel nervous for some reason," said Cobalt. "Very nervous. Something isn't right."

Heh... you too, eh?

The lucario looked at her and smiled. "My nervousness isn't because of anxiety over wanting to show my new traveling companion a place I think he would like."

H-hey! Is it that transparent?

"It doesn't take a psychic for everything, Espa." The lucario fidgeted and looked around again, eventually closing his eyes and letting his aura senses open wide.

Mmm...

The psychic type turned away, letting her ears droop sideways like airplane wings. Now that she was looking for it, she could feel it to: a faint sense of despair in the area around them. She wasn't quite sure what to think of it. She hadn't had a bad feeling that felt quite so... ambient... before.

The lucario's aura sensors returned to their normal positions, and soon he reopened his eyes..

"The flow of the aura is warning me... something bad is coming. It's coming tonight. Something catastrophic for this area."

Is that so?

"I wish it wasn't. I've never seen this kind of a feeling be wrong before. Not for a lucario. The last feeling I had like it, was..."

Was?

"On the day Turner died. The day we went on that trip to his favorite hot spring."

I see.

"Don't let that stop you. I do want to see this hot spring of yours, especially if it's close. But I think we should try to discern what exactly is going to happen here... either that or go somewhere far away as soon as we've refreshed ourselves."

Yeah... I can't blame you, said Espa, starting to walk and to swish her tail more quickly, lashing it back and forth in flat horizontal lines as she thought hurriedly about the sense of doom she had felt. I'll see if I can find out anything on my own energetic channels.

"Do you have connections to the human world?"

Actually, I do. I can tap into the television signals going to Burgundy Town and read them as if my mind's eye were a TV set. That should make it easier to tell whether the sense of doom we're both feeling has anything to do with a natural disaster, or an outbreak of war, or some other human problem that's already starting. It's quite taxing to parse those signals, however, so I'll wait until after we've rested at the spring before I do it.

Cobalt folded his arms across his chest as he walked alongside her and couldn't help feeling rather impressed. "That's a pretty good trick, girl. I'll come along and wait for you to fill me in."

* * *

Scene 9: To the Hot Springs

The hot spring Espa had advertised turned out to be smaller than Cobalt expected, but also much warmer. By its odor, he could tell it was rich in healthy minerals as well.

"So here we are, eh? Kind of shocked we got all the way up here without any of those geodude taking notice of us," Cobalt commented regarding their trip through the uncharacteristically rocky hills nearest the the spring. "Come to think of it, we've not been bothered by a single wild pokémon since I joined up with you." He gave her a playful stare, his muzzle sporting a slight grin.

And... what're you suggesting? said the espeon, swishing her tail mischievously as she leaned down to the water's edge and took a deep and satisfied inhalation of the steam.

"Well, I know you put out a passive psychic field around you... are you doing something to them?"

To the other pokémon? Not much. Just making myself seem... not worth noticing, that's all.

"Well, what about me?" asked Cobalt as he sat down in a meditative posture at the water's edge, letting himself connect to the life energies of the surrounding area. Numerous bug types and ground types were burrowed under the earth not far from here, but seemed uninterested in coming out for now. This spring was a place of life, and apparently the true hot spot where pokémon in this part of the countryside would gather. He now realized it was no wonder that the creek in the lowlands had so little activity, compared to what he would expect.

Heh... what about you? the espeon replied several seconds later, starting to get her front paws wet and getting more and more excited about diving in.

"Did your screening powers not work on me or something?"

I don't know. Did they? It looked like you noticed me.

"Hmm, yes, I did... though, I judged you as something beneath my notice. It was only my healthy level of paranoia that kept me on guard enough to be ready to fight back." The lucario scooted forward and let his paws rest in the edge of the spring feeling the warmth soothe his days-worn feet. "Ahh, such a good place."

See? I know good places. 'Course, it helps that I've been hanging around these parts for a few days longer than you have. But I like this spring very much, nice and relaxing for an intense mind like my own. You look over to our right between the foothills there and you can see Burgundy Town even better than before.

It was true. The place looked utterly quaint and peaceful. It couldn't have a population of more than several hundred - humans, anyway - within the town proper. There was no smog, and only minor automotive emissions. How he wished Turner had been able to grow up in such a quiet place... their hometown was large enough not to be so simple, yet too small to be as amenity-laden as a proper city...

You really miss him, don't you?" said Espa consolingly.

"Hey, fuzzybutt, why don't you get out of my head?" the lucario teased, still trying to act pristinely strong after all of the walking they had been doing. For Cobalt, physical strength and emotional strength were mostly one united thing - not only as concepts, but also literally, for the power of aura united the strengths of body and soul. He knew that his past was like a great wound in his soul, a great scarred place that limited his power. He knew that, and behaved with increasing caution and paranoia because of it. If he came up against the strongest opponents one might face in the wild, there was a chance he could be squished like a bug.

You have so much strength you don't let yourself use anymore... isn't that right?

"I-I... I think it's more complicated than that."

What you see as a wound is more correctly describable as a blockage, the espeon commented. I have seen many blocks like this before. The experience did not tear part of yourself of you... not truly. You were too strong for that, and shared too much real love for your trainer. The experience only convinced you to hide that love, to take it deep inside of yourself where no one else would ever see it. But it can't function right that way, Cobalt... you must let it out again. Whether it's toward me, or toward anyone else... that's immaterial. But you need to let yourself feel compassion for human beings again. You need to let yourself feel the love and the security you used to feel when Turner as alive.

The lucario let his legs sink deeper, now descending to just past his ankles.

"You say that like it's easy," said Cobalt, his voice quiet and uncertain, the edge of his frustration kept at bay mainly by the warmth and fond odor of the springs.

It will be, someday... I hope.

"Someday? ...Well, what it it could be sooner rather than later?" He slipped himself over the edge and into the water, lowering himself down to the waist.

For your sake, I hope it can be.

"Mmm."

Mnn... not a proper gentleman I see.

"What?"

You didn't let the lady go first!

"Oh please. I never liked those human standards."

Heheh, well... neither did I.

Espa stepped back from the edge slightly, then took a two-step trot and leapt out toward the center of the spring, which was only about eight meters wide to begin with. She splashed down with a goofy "ESPaaa-ee!" battle-cry and immediately went belly up, pawing playfully at the surface of the water while her carefully managed telekinetic power made doubly sure she would float properly and not drown - as if that was needed in a hot spring that was no deeper than Cobalt was tall..

While the espeon floundered around happily in the soothing warmth, Cobalt took a moment to close his eyes and look within himself. For starters, he asked himself why he was still walking around with this espeon - this creature so dangerous to pokémon of his type. Why really, anyway, since there were already plenty of surface reasons that he could cite - safety in numbers, similar backgrounds, an obvious though mildly off-putting chemistry that had existed between them from the beginning and now hung over every moment of their conversations like a horny tauros looking for a quick mating.

He didn't want to look at Espa's hindquarters as she paddled past him, but he couldn't help looking anyway. He felt like a newly evolved lucario again, recalling the changes in his sexual system that he had experienced just before - and right after - his change. How embarrassed he'd been when he'd had to ask Turner of all people why he felt so strange, why he was suddenly having so many erections.

Leave it to that wheelchair-bound bookworm to know everything there was to know about lucarios mating, Cobalt thought bitterly, trying to shove the embarrassment away by thinking disparagingly of his trainer. It wasn't working, and only left him feeling far beyond guilty. The gist of his thought was true however: Turner had looked up every bit of info on lucario reproduction that he could find, and asked the breeders - the same ones who who gave Cobalt to him - to fill in the rest.

The more Cobalt remembered the number of things Turner knew that he shouldn't have, the more he was... reminded.

Being reminded, he thought further to himself. Maybe that is an angle here.

Smart, intuitive, and obviously vulnerable and under attack from something, her safety in jeopardy... did Espa remind him of Turner? In a way, yes, she did. Of course, the threats to her safety were far more external than Turner's had been. Cobalt felt like he had a legitimate chance of protecting her from Team Rocket, or from any other criminal syndicate that might get wind of her and want in on the action. He had never felt like he had a legitimate chance of protecting Turner, and that in itself had been heartwrenching. She felt like his chance for redemption... for at failing in his earlier duty?

Failing. How could he even call it that? Turner... no one could have protected him. No one but a god, and any god watching over Turner obviously had more important purposes in mind with that young man, giving him such a warm heart and such a short life on this planet. Clearly his spirit had been destined for better things. That, at least was the only way Cobalt could look at it without hating whoever or whatever had made Turner and their world.

For all of his intellectualizing and considerations here, Cobalt knew that a much larger part of himself, deep inside, remained full of resentment: angry and hateful of the entire circumstance. That part of him would have been willing to fight against the very flow of the cosmos if it had to, in order to save Turner's life. Of course, it hadn't been able to: not at all.

That angry part of himself felt like a great beast lurking in his otherwise precise and disciplined mind. It was a monstrous spirit of power, closely linked to his ability to enhance his physical strength with his aura. At least, the two had become linked to one another, whether they were originally or not. When Turner was alive he could push himself far better, and in a wider variety of circumstances, than he could now. These days, the only times that he could swell his muscles at all were times when he felt like he might be fighting for his own life, or perhaps for someone else's - he hadn't had an occasion to test the latter. In those critical times, he could channel at least some of his fury into whatever he wished, as he intuitively had done when Espa attacked him. It didn't give him the results he used to get, but it gave him something. Bottom line, the whole process felt subconsious - largely detached from his control - and in any situation other than one that triggered his fighting instincts, he was now at a loss for reaching his full power.

He knew that too much of his inner energy went toward penning up the hatred and grief buried inside. He knew these things - could perhaps even help someone else work through these things - but felt powerless to heal himself. Something stood in the way. His pride, he supposed.

He continued to brood, shifting his weight a little as he sank further into the spring, his legs crossing meditatively as the warmth washed over him. Was Espa reading his mind right now and sensing all of this? He didn't think so. If she was, it was only loosely, lazily, while most of her attention focused on the joys of play. He felt relief, a chance to think, to go deeper without risking an embarrassment he wasn't ready to endure yet.

But his reflections were soon interrupted, not by the espeon, but by his own physiology: he felt a familiar warmth rising in his nethers while he listened to the espeon splashing around, and observed the playful happiness of her aura, eyes still plainly shut. No, no, no! Not now, sh-she can't see that!

Cobalt's humanoid canine shaft was poking its way out of its hiding place, the sheath withdrawing and giving way to the soothing warmth of the spring. His penis was always straight due to possessing a baculum, but it now swelled noticeably larger from the steadily increasing engorgement, with even his knot entering a spontaneous inflation and bulge. He sat there in the water, the warmth of it flowing over the surface of his shaft, distracting him considerably.

What a time for... desires.... he muttered mentally, feeling himself give in to the desire to at least reach around and touch it, cupping his knot among the padded fingers of his right hand, and stroking at his testicles with smooth motions from his left. Espa lay on her back with her head facing as much away from him as the position allowed... surely she'd notice this mentally though. He wasn't sure any longer if he really cared. She had to know by now that males had these sorts of urges.

Cobalt looked and felt at his own aura in his loins. The flow of it was like a torrent of water, snaking through pipes that looped around and around on each other, sloshing among them as it gradually filled the system more and more. When he looked at it this way, he longed to open the valve and let that energy pour... preferably into places that it would be most useful. Instinct held him here: he looked at Espa's rump and had more than a few lewd thoughts about filling her with riolu. He couldn't remember if reproduction between their species was even possible, but still the fantasies came. So many riolu, their little paws adorable as they climbed on their mommy.

The horny lucario shook his head in disgust and consciously shut down his aura vision for the time being - and with it a portion of his arousal. Discipline! Discipline! He was not going to go pleasuring himself while Espa was around!

A quiet voice deep within himself seemed to agree, but in a bit more twisted of a fashion: he would wait until the first moment that she was not around, and then he would do it.

Cobalt frowned at himself, feeling his knot deflating and erection slowly receding into his sheath. It was at this moment that he decided to start up conversation to get his mind off of things.

"Say, Espa."

Eh? What's the maaaatter with you? the espeon moaned playfully. Why're you all nervous... giving off these weird feelings at me. I'm trying to relax my poor, poor tired brain, you silly blue person. I'm resting so we can try to figure out what's going to go baaaaad!

"I apologize... just... well, there's still one other question on my mind, about your trainer, if you're willing."

Well, perhaps. The espeon paddled upside down again and swished her tail.

"...How did Alex win another eevee? That seems terribly lucky if he wasn't just some rich kid buying tons of tokens."

She floated upright and paddled in place, looking directly in Cobalt's direction. Oh, that's easy. He won them with me.

Cobalt paused and thought for a moment. "But wait... they don't let psychic pokémon anywhere near the machines in those kinds of places, right? At the Corner where I'm from, people weren't allowed to have one on the premises at all."

In my case, they didn't have to. You see, I seem to have had an unusual reaction to that particular drug. For most pokémon, a drug of that type merely makes their special attacks stronger. Turns out that the Rocket prototype Alex purchased for me increased the range of my abilities to far beyond their norm, so long as I remained under their influence. I could link myself to my trainer's mind and rig a slot from blocks away without the slightest threat of detection, even by other psychics, provided that I did it carefully. We always had to play along for a while... let him win some and lose some the way things normally go... but over the whole arc of the time he spent there, we would beat the house. We'd beat the house just enough no one noticed.

"And you are a sly devil of an espeon," said Cobalt, relaxing again and continuing to soak himself.

You can take that as a given.

"But you're also cute," Cobalt further offered.

That why you want to breed me?

Cobalt blushed. "How much did you -"

Not much, but your arousal was pretty loud. You're so lonely it's adorable.

"Yeah, well... I could say the same thing about you."

Heh. Never said you couldn't. The espeon began paddling directly toward the edge, and didn't turn when she got close. Her hindpaws scrabbled as she pulled herself up without telekinesis.

"Hey, don't run off. We haven't been in here ten minutes even!"

The look on the espeon's face was suddenly serious - a far cry from the playful expression she'd had earlier. Cobalt could feel some unease too if he let himself, but he rather didn't want to do it right now. He kept pushing it away, somewhat contrary to how he knew lucario were supposed to behave in times of crisis.

I'm sorry, Cobalt, said Espa, her jewel glowing and her body beginning to hover above the ground. Important information is being dispatched. I must go receive it.

"Information?"

Human information. I'll return shortly. She floated off down the other side of the rocky slope, in the direction of Burgundy Town.

Cobalt repositioned himself, feeling the water move with him, and seeing the tiny waves he made on the water's surface. His chest spike made little splashes of its own as it moved up and out of the water, and then back down.

"Huh," said the lucario. "I... guess she must mean the TV signals."

Please.... relax and... enjoy yourself, came Espa's lingering psychic voice, causing Cobalt to sit upright with a start, lose his grip on the wall, and sink briefly underwater. He pulled himself back up, and shook the steamy water off his face.

Yeah, thought Cobalt, trying to think the words back to Espa along their psychic link. I think I'll try to do that. ...Thank you.

* * *

Scene 10: Espa Reads the TV

Hovering a short distance above the downward-sloping ground, Espa the espeon reached out in mental desperation, hurrying to grab as much data from the human airwaves as her brain could process. It was time for the mid-day news, a broadcast likely to give her clues to what was going on.

Her mind reeled from wave after wave of static garble as she attuned and re-attuned herself, trying to catch the station she wanted. What was so easy a process for an inorganic television antenna took a great deal more care and caution for a psychic type emulating it with biology. Gradually from the chaos consistent images emerged... a woman in a blue business suit, sitting next to a man... text going along the bottom... and sound. The ever-important sound.

"In our topsaaa story todaeon," Espa's physical voice rumblingly and inconsistently said, "the storm-eon the century haspa struck the region. Tornadoes-pa are a dangereon this afternooon. Keep watch on newspeon channel seveon for further updates."

Espa was saying these things automatically, like a medium might when channeling a spirit. She had tapped into the sound of the TV channel and, her mind exhausted and overloaded from trying to perceive both audio and picture directly, had routed the impulses through her verbal centers instead, resulting in automatic speech. Her periodic espeon noises notwithstanding, the broadcast's message was still fairly clear, and made her nervous. Keeping her mental focus on the imagery coming through to her, she got a glimpse at the radar. Thunderstorms so heavy that they were showing up as red were rolling through the region, sure enough... and it looked like one would be reaching the area of Burgundy Town within the next few hours.

I can barely believe it, Espa thought to herself in between bursts of forced speaking. There isn't a cloud in the sky in that direction! How fast is this storm moving!? Yet, the area did seem strangely calm... and the other pokémon she'd been keeping away from herself and Cobalt did seem unusually eager to stay out of sight today...

"Although much of the storm's path esp uninhabited countryside-eon, one small location doesp esp-stand out: Burgundy Townspeon, home of the the Darco Children's Hospitaleon, famous for its muscular dys-peon research. From all of uspeon here at newseon seven, we hope for their safeteon... thesp storm regrettably esp-eems to be headed right for them. Back to you, Greg."

Espa's eyes went wide, and she began to withdraw from her synchronization to the TV waves. "ESPAAA!!" she cried, and turned to dart back toward Cobalt. She wasn't yet sure how many of these details she felt safe telling him.

* * *

Scene 11: Cobalt Relaxes

Sitting there in the warmth of the spring, Cobalt tried to take Espa's advice to heart... to really let himself open up and experience the things his body wanted to experience here... to work with the flow rather than damming it up entirely. All he could think about were more and more images of Espa, heavy with the pokémon eggs that would eventually hatch his cubs.

He would have worried that perhaps she was planting these images in his mind as a way to manipulate him, but it felt simple and true to say that it wasn't. These imaginings were his own... if anything, Espa's lack of interfering with his head was probably doing more to turn him on than most easy manipulations she could have done. The thought of a psychic type who would be honest with him and give him the emotional space he needed gave him a strange amount of pleasure. He wanted someone psychically strong, someone who could hurt him if need be... some one who could indeed stop him, shut him down... but who otherwise complemented his strengths, could handle situations he couldn't... and best of all, knew what it felt like to sense something most others couldn't feel. The energies they each specialized in sensing were different from one another, true, but the basic experience of having a sense the others around them lacked was a point on which they related, and related so obviously and effortlessly that it made the pairing seem ever more delightful.

Cobalt's hands began working at the once-again swelling heft of his cock, and at the needy, firm bulge of his knot. He might have felt naughty fantasizing about her, but it felt less naughty when he trusted, as he currently did, that if she actually was in heat and got to the right point in her cycle, there would be no questions... they would mate, both of them creatures of instinct in their passions, even though they were intelligent as well. The pairing was good; the pairing could work.

His penis swelled harder, its pink flesh beginning to blaze with a flow of aura that grew and gained energy with each stroke of the lucario's pawpads. To his surprise, he soon found himself gaining muscle as well, with every major group beginning to tense and relax in rhythm to his strokes. He had not felt this much intensity of feeling since the platonic devotion he once had for his trainer... and now it was creeping out in a form his body could once again use. The angry blockages remained, but he felt something changing - something eroding at them, giving the system of his soul some room to move and reorganize. He felt his grip on his own cock tightening as he marveled pleasantly at the bulges in his chest and arms: pecs, biceps, triceps... even down toward his wrists, and the lesser muscles of his hands... the sinews around his handspikes were thickening...

"Hunnh!" Cobalt grunted, and lost it, beginning to thrust hungrily into his paws, letting himself roll under the surface of the water with erotic abandon as he jabbed into the self-made hole that he imagined to be his mate, his bride, whether that was to be Espa or... well, anyone else at this point. His cock bulged with a growing influx of blood, the sensations of pleasure rumbling through his body.

Aroused as he was, he didn't last long: a familiar pleasant tightness in his groin built up in a hurry, and he managed to orient himself into a standing position on the shallowest part of the spring, his head just sticking out enough to pant as the pink of his knot throbbed to its full size a rush of euphoria and contractions rolled through him, and a thin stream of white spunk erupted outward, flowing into the water with a smooth but steady ease.

Ordinarily he would've felt weird about ejaculating into a hot spring, but not today. Something in him was becoming... different: more exuberant, less worried. He could feel it emotionally, and could viscerally sense it in the way his muscles continued to bulge with aura even now. He felt at once like a breeding stud and a protector. The former took him a little by surprise; the latter, not so much, as he had regarded himself as a protector for many years already now - although that mental paradigm had been shaken up quite hard on the day Turned died.

Cobalt shuddered in his afterglow, letting himself drift on his back while his penis continued dispensing semen at a slow, throbbing rate - the tiny puffs of white continuing to emerge from that happy pink tip. Meanwhile within, his thoughts and reflections came in relieving spurts... not unlike the fluids he was emitting.

He supposed that being a breeding stud naturally appealed to him because of his childhood. Back then, at the breeding center, any male lucario who got bred often would also end up near the top of the social pecking order... that was just how things were. He thought he had put most of that impulse behind him with the self-discipline training he had undergone to become a better fighter, but here in his orgasmic reverie, under these circumstances, he could see it staring up at him from the depths of his mind, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world... he wanted to be regarded as a stud. It seemed so laughable, yet so adorable and strangely basic.

He felt reassured that this was one quandary in his mind that had at most very little to do with Turner's passing. This was something he felt like he could handle. Was the fuzzy little psychic setting him up for this? Did she already know this was an issue in him?

Cobalt floated idly on his back, giving his exposed cock a firm yet tender gripping with his right hand, feeling the flesh continue to pulse softly as its ejaculatory antics at last slowed down toward their end.

Hey, Cobalt! Oh. The psychic link abruptly cut off, and Espa remained outside of Cobalt's physical field of vision.

"Hey... don't be shy," Cobalt said, loudly enough to be heard, but much more groggily than he had expected to sound. "I took your advice, and I don't regret it. You should get a look at me now... or at least, here very soon. Then we need to go eat again. All this energy flow is making me hungry."

Espa chanced a glance over the rim of the hot spring, and found that Cobalt had modestly lowered his genitals below the surface of the water - not that it entirely kept her from seeing them. Mostly, she saw the way that his musculature had expanded - it reminded her of how he had looked after their fight earlier, and this time the energy his body was giving off seemed a little more stable.

Okay, so you apparently get extra hot during sex too, Espa said as matter-of-factly as she could manage. Cobalt couldn't help but smirk.

"Still don't get why you're so attracted to muscles."

Simple magnetism. I don't have them.

"Keep telling yourself that." Espa glared at him. "So, what did you find out?"

It's not good, she began as she stepped closer to the edge and looked him in the eyes. That sense of doom we're feeling is probably due to a major storm cell that will be rolling through this area in a few hours. If we're both feeling such a strong sense of unease, I'm going to guess there really will be tornadoes or perhaps a forest fire - something significantly more destructive than "'just" a storm.

"You look like you're about to fall over."

I'm... very tired. Channeling the TV station signal took a lot out of me. There's too much garbage data.

"Yeah, I know what you mean. Turner used to say the same thing about television."

What? No - I mean, the data literally -

"Yeah, yeah, it fries your brain. I get it. It would be like the way I feel in heavily polluted areas, where the aura is all messed up."

You seem... different.

"I just came," the lucario said bluntly. "I'm not really in a mode where I can do much more than perceive and comment. We've got a few hours, right? Why don't I go get you some more food, and you rest here, and we'll figure out where we want to go to get out of the way of that storm."

I um... there's just one problem. Espa lay down at the water's edge, her nose leaning above it, taking in the gentle vapors.

"Yeah?" said Cobalt, splashing his rippled chest with some more water as he prepared to climb out. "What is it?"

...Did you get taller too? Espa said.

"Yeah, some. Enough I can stand in the pool easier."

You're... you're like twenty percent taller.

"Not quite that. Listen, you need to tell me what you heard. Something's got you really worried, and it's not just the tiredness. Spill it."

...Fine. There's a children's hospital in Burgundy Town. I had forgotten. That's the other thing the town is known for.

"A children's hospital?"

They research experimental treatments for muscular dystrophy there, among other things...

Cobalt paused, looking over his shoulder at the espeon, his muscular glutes shimmering in the sunlight below the refractive surface of the water. "You're telling me... people who research the kind of -"

Yes.

"And they're right in the path of tornadoes."

Probably. Sometime later today. Probably before nightfall.

Cobalt thought about this. Then he climbed out of the water, facing away from Espa, his tail swishing several times to get some liquid off while his fuzzy blue balls were obviously displayed for her.

I'm sorry, Cobalt. I wasn't sure if I should tell you.

"You had good reason to be concerned. But yes, please tell me these things. I'll go grab us some food."

You going all the way back to the berry patch?

"If I must. I can move easier with these muscles. I'd rather use it while I can." He took off running down the slope in the direction from which they'd come. His movements accelerated until they were nearly a blur, and he zipped past the local geodude on the way down far quicker than they could even react.

I have no idea what on earth I'm going to do, Cobalt thought to himself. I have no idea what either of us can do, apart from helping them get their patients out of the storm's path. But I'm going to do something.

Up by the spring, Espa let out a gentle sigh, and climbed in. She wanted to get deeper into Cobalt's fears as soon as possible, to get them out in the open and sorted before they became problems again. But she equally knew that both of them had issues with feeling like they needed to protect others. How could she face Cobalt's grief when she didn't even yet know within herself how she truly felt about leaving Alex behind? She only knew - or at least, she trusted - that doing it had been necessary and was overall better than staying... but what did it really mean?

Feeling turned on by the hunk of a lucario she had encountered bothered her far less. She knew these things happened. Creatures found other creatures... and sometimes, the chemistry would just click. That didn't mean there wouldn't be challenges. Neither of them fully trusted each other - how could they? Yet in only a day of traveling together they had found much in common, and neither felt as shy as they perhaps "should" feel about each other's "needs."

The espeon sank into the water, letting the warmth wash over her and soothe her body once more. She knew Cobalt had ejaculated in here, but she wasn't put off; she wasn't in heat, and the odds of anything happening from it even if she were seemed so astronomical as to be impossible. She could feel the psychic echoes of his passion and his determination - the subtle mental marks that he had made on the place when he let his energy flow.

She felt foolish at how badly she wanted him to hold her and hug her, in those large and readily expanded arms of his. That chest... that back...

Espa sighed again after resurfacing, feeling herself panting in a more sexual fashion than she would have liked. She knew this was at least partly a situational arousal for both of them: neither had seen another formerly trained pokémon in a long, long while. That, plus the chemistry... of course they would hit it off well. It made sense. Yet it was still coming on all too fast... yet, did that matter?

The gem on her forehead glowed. Her thoughts drifted out subtly into the flow of the universe, in something almost like a prayer: Please, let us live together and care for each other.

* * *

Scene 12: Storm Impending

Cobalt hadn't gotten a chance to run full-on like this in quite some time. The endurance he currently felt in his body was nothing short of amazing, even if it wasn't altogether unfamiliar either. He hoped it would last, at least long enough to get back. Already he could feel some of the firmness of the change diminishing, the edges of his physical power fading slowly back to normal... but "slowly" was a key word here, and he only had one more kilometer of running still to go.

In his arms he was carrying a pile of the red berries from the forest near the stream, along with a single non-pokémon fish, procured from the river by lunging into the water at extreme speed and knife-handing right through its body. Cobalt knew in his bones that he didn't have time to waste on anything less expedient. Now, in this last leg of his run, the dark blue-gray storm that clouds saw gathering in the north were more than enough to convince him his hunch was right. His pawed feet moved at a blinding pace, smashing the grass and knocking aside stems in a regular and predictable line as he tore across the countryside along a path roughly following the one he and Espa had blazed earlier.

Around him, at a distance, the trees and shrubs of the landscape rustled in a calm but foreboding wind. None of it came as a surprise, really. It was late summer, nearly autumn, but the weather patterns lately all pointed to this possibility. He hadn't thought of it before - weather seldom worried him - and he didn't even particularly care what might happen to the town as a whole: thunderstorms and tornadoes were natural processes, after all. He did however care what might happen to the people, especially if they were people who shared at all in the sufferings he and his master had known.

Wild ideas were forming in his mind... ideas that even half an hour ago he would not have allowed himself to entertain. The flow of aura through him - the power that he now felt - this strength that wasn't too-quickly going away... these things gave him more hope than he had previously, and inspired him to try to push past his normal boundaries in opposing the coming storm.

With a measured leap, Cobalt vaulted himself up from a grassy knoll onto the rockier slope leading up to the spring. It wouldn't be long now. He could feel Espa's influence reaching out to his brain.

Cobalt, came the Espeon's voice. I peeked into the waves one more time, as best I could from here. There are plans to evacuate the children's hospital. You don't have to worry.

I still plan on doing anything I can to help, Cobalt thought back, hoping she could hear him. I'm a person of action. This is how I get my worries and my guilt out. I put them out into something that can shred them to dust. Something that lets me atone.

But there's nothing to atone for! Unless there's something else. What else happened on that day that you're not showing me?

Save it, Espa. The lucario felt his muscles throbbing with renewed power. There really isn't much else. There's only bad memories... memories I'll confront when the time comes. Maybe you're right, that I shouldn't feel like I need to atone. All the same, I do. Unfortunately, in this case, if I feel it so deeply, it might as well be true.

I question the wisdom in that.

You'll see.

What do you have in mind for helping them anyway? I can throw up some walls of force to break the winds for people who get caught out, but before long we're going to have to take cover ourselves, assuming a tornado even rolls through at all.

"It's going to," said Cobalt aloud, making the final jump up to the rim of ledge containing the spring. "There's practically no question. I've never been as sure about something as I am about this. Here, take this food. You should eat before we have to go to Burgundy Town. I already ate a bit myself."

What! No, you eat the fish, or at least most of it. You just ran that distance in a ridiculously short time, and your body...

"My body is more efficient than ever. I'm not burning myself out. The flow of aura is correcting itself inside of me, as I continue to regain my confidence. Don't worry, just eat."

...Fine. The espeon hopped out of the water and began tearing into the fish first.

Cobalt stood with his back to her, and the espeon found it annoyingly difficult to keep from staring at his rigidly sculpted calves and thighs, along with his already usually pleasant behind. She still felt almost embarrassed to find herself enjoying his muscularity so much. Then he pivoted a little and gave her a direct view of his testicles, which seemed to have a somewhat enlarged scrotum compared to before, and the balls to match. They were hanging down much further than usual, probably because of the heat his body built up in the run, and she couldn't help having lewd thoughts about them.

Am I going into heat? she pondered privately. I hope not, not so soon... that would be horribly awkward timing...

A flash of lightning and a peal of not-so-distant thunder broke the espeon from her horny reverie. Cobalt, too, turned to face her, his penis fully hidden within its sheath as his mind and body both remained serious about the situation at hand.

"This thing is getting closer faster than we thought. You eat up. I'll carry you down there afterward."

CARRY me?

"Don't act weird about it. I don't want you wasting energy moving yourself. I'm gonna need you for this."

Uh huh. And what exactly is 'this'? You haven't told me what you intend to do.

"I intend to punch the tornado, and make it turn away."

The espeon stopped eating entirely and stared at him. She didn't think-say anything at him. Her eyes looked full of incredulity.

"I'm not kidding, Espa. We're going to combine the power of aura with the power of your psionics to diver the tornado into the hills on the far side of the town. Mostly rock and ground types will live over there, and they have ways to avoid damage in a case like this.

ARE YOU INSANE?

"No. I really believe we can do this."

Yeah. Yeah. Sure! Sure! Great Arceus, you've flipped your lid. Look at you! Look at me. We're not... we're not Zapdos or Lugia or something... we don't control weather, we just predict it and move out of the way. Or move other people out of the way. Goodness, I thought that would be the plan all along, and now you're talking crazy like this!

"Espa..."

The espeon turned away in frustration, her flesh still flushing from her moments-earlier arousal. Cobalt, I know you want to help these people, but honestly, you don't have it in you. Neither do I. Why can't we be realistic?

Cobalt glared at her as another thunderclap echoed through the area. His facial expression was one of indignation and meanness. Slowly the thoughts of his mind moved and processed; his feelings sorted themselves out. Then his expression rearranged into a smile.

"Espa, it's totally reasonable for you to think that. ...I have only one request to make."

Oh? She turned to look at him, her gem pulsing with a faint burst of light.

"I want you to come with me... in my arms. Come with me to Burgundy Town. All the way past it, toward where the storm will arrive... but not so far out we can't run for cover."

And then?

"And then I want you to dig as deep into my mind as you can go. I want you to see what happened to me on that day... and to Turner."

But why? Why now?

"Because the rest of my power his hidden behind that despair, and you're the only person I see right now who can get it out of me fast enough for me to prove to you that we're able to make this happen if we try."

The espeon was stunned. It's... dangerous to do things so quickly.

"Try me. I want to see a psychic use her powers for good for a change. I want you to dig deep and not hold anything back. I'll tell you if I can't take it."

Well, it's dangerous for me too.

"Espa."

...All right. I'll try.

"Good. That's all I really want. If we try and fail... at least we tried."

Espa closed her eyes in thought. Yes, Cobalt, she thought to herself. If only you'd apply that to yourself when you really do feel like you've failed...

* * *

Scene 13: Storm Struggle

The weather didn't look one speck better as Cobalt darted across the grassy hills toward Burgundy Town. It only ever looked and sounded worse, with the thunderclaps drawing ever closer and a heavy torrent of rain coming down perceptibly in the distance.

The pair of pokémon darted across multiple roads, nimbly avoiding cars and ignoring the confused looks from pokémon trainers and ordinary citizens alike who caught sight of them. One kid who couldn't have been older than seven even lobbed a pokéball at them, but it missed and rolled unceremoniously to a stop a few meters away. Cobalt couldn't help turning and snorting a laugh.

The people here don't seem as concerned as I expected, Espa commented as they ran along. Perhaps they get storms here more than rarely.

I doubt they get them this big, Cobalt replied, letting his mind follow the psychic link. I really think they're in for more than they expect, here.

I think so too... which is partly why your plan worries me.

The lucario grinned. Well, don't worry. We've got this.

The espeon closed her eyes in exasperation. NOW you sound like Alex...

Cobalt made no further reply, continuing his sprinty crusade into the nearby fields and forest, skirting his way around Burgundy as fast as he could while taking care not to get Espa whacked by passing tree limbs.

In his arms, Espa started mumbling human speech with her mouth. At first Cobalt didn't say anything, but it kept going for a while, and he could barely make out most of what she was saying, so he ended up breaking his silence. "What's going on?"

Three tornadoes confirmed on the ground ten kilometers northwest of the town. You know there's a chance they're going to snake their way around and we aren't going to be able to get between them and the town in the first place, right?

"For crying out loud, stop being such a Negative Nanceon."

A what?

"A Negative Nancy. A complainer. If you keep acting like we can't do this, there's no way we'll manage it."

The espeon sighed. Cobalt, seriously, you aren't thinking this through, and you're just going to end up disappointing yourself even if you do get out without being hurt, which I am in no way sure of. You don't have to be a hero for me; I already know you want to - whuah!

"Espa-ee!" the psychic type shrieked out as her body dropped to the ground. She looked up at Cobalt, whose imposingly muscular body was twitching with rage, his stare even more frightening than the form itself.

"Espa... I shouldn't have involved you in this. I thought we would pull together and do this, but -"

Do what!? the espeon told him angrily. And why drop me all of a sudden?

"I'm going on without you. If you doubt we can do this, then I don't want you to get hurt."

There's no WAY you're getting anything done up there without me, so I don't understand!

Cobalt sighed. "My body and mind are a mess of emotions right now. I need to sort them out. With you or without you. I don't think you understand quite how much this means to me."

Then for the love of all that is sane and rational, let me see what happened with Turner! Let me see! Let me see now, before it's too late.

"We may already be too late. This storm is even worse than I expected, and it's closing on us fast."

You idiot! Come here!

Cobalt looked confused as the espeon ran at him, her entire body glowing a bright, flaring shade of pink. The light glowed against the greenery of the surrounding bushes and trees, giving the cloud-shadowed surroundings an otherworldly quality in the moments before she headbutted him directly in the stomach. Cobalt's abs were now nearly as hard as his namesake, and her blow looked like it might do more to cause her pain than him... but that wasn't the intent.

At the moment of contact, a great flow of energy moved subtly yet powerfully into Cobalt's sensitive body. It found its way to his spine, and raced straight up to his head. Then everything went crazy.

* * *

Scene 14: The Battle Within

Cobalt found himself in the darkness of a night-time desert. Ahead was the dry oasis, where the sandy image of Turner lay, and already the image was crumbling. There was no confusion this time: Turner was dead. He had been dead for a long time. The only thing living of Turner, on this world at least, was through his memory - Cobalt's memory - and through the ways Turner had helped Cobalt grow strong.

The lucario took a glance at his own body and was surprised to see himself looking so ripplingly muscled in this place. Usually in his nightmares, he looked only lean, or even a bit scrawny. The sands were collapsing now, dissolving into dust. Turner's blood swam among the sands, and there were no stars in the sky, and no moon.

"I can't keep going like this," Cobalt said plainly, folding his arms as he looked at the sight. "I can't let that day be all there is down here, inside."

From the pool of Turner's blood, a fountain began bubbling up. A spring made of blood. It frothed and babbled, slowly pooling and beginning to fill the oasis again. It looked like blood, but it was clean and safe... it was from Turner after all, the one person he had trusted so much.

Cobalt reached down respectfully and put a finger into the fountain, thinking of his old trainer.

In an instant the lucario found himself in his past. Around him was the mountain spring where he, Turner, and the other pokémon had spent the trainer's last day. Turner had just collapsed. Cobalt didn't know what it meant - didn't understand that the boy's circulatory system had finally failed, that his heart was breaking in a physical and literal sense, and that Turner would not survive the night no matter what Cobalt did. He tried everything, from physical methods to aura methods. The best he could manage was getting Turner to wake up for a few moments. The boy was only half-awake, obviously dazed... but he looked at Cobalt and smiled, and petted him on the shoulder.

Some words came back to Cobalt. Words Turner had said earlier that evening: "I wish you would have all the strength I never got to have... and more." It was a sentiment Turner had expressed many times, but never quite so directly as he did on that last day.

Now, while Cobalt tried to awaken Turner, a sympathetic, curious mew flew by, and opened its mouth in sad reverence. A mew Cobalt had not noticed until then.

"Why don't you do something!" Cobalt said irritably to the psychic type.

The mew let out a disheartened, "Mew!" and made a circle in its flight through the air.

"Grr, you psychics are useless. The ones at the doctors' offices were no help either." Cobalt picked up Turner's body. "Why don't you just leave us alone."

"Mew..." The pokémon sounded even more discouraged, but did not leave.

"Fine. Do whatever you want. I'm taking him to a doctor. You hear that guys?" He directed this question at the mankey and the machops. "We're getting Turner back to town. NOW!"

They darted off running, Cobalt's muscles swelling with determination, just as he had trained to be able to do... but something was different today. The swelling was even more robust than usual. Morbidly, he worried that maybe Turner's strength really had been absorbed into his body, but he pushed the thought away. He was no vampire - of strength or of anything else.

The run back to town was long and hard, and he soon left the other fighting types in the dust. The mew, however, followed, and would not let up. It seemed to be channeling some sort of energy over them, an energy that helped Cobalt feel reassured, to run, to keep pushing himself even further and larger!

The strength grew and grew. Cobalt made it to the local hospital in record time, his body a hulking mass of sinew and crackling with aura power, in a way which the mew seemed to have help enable. The lucario frightened several receptionists and waiting patients alike, drawing plenty of unwanted attention and more than one can of pepper spray, which he roaringly shrugged off and ran past, demanding that Turner be allowed to see a doctor right away - that he was a frequent patient here, and that he needed urgent aid.

It didn't take long for the hospital to notify the boy's parents and get them over... but Cobalt was asked to stay outside in a lounge area for "difficult" pokémon, as his enormous appearance was now too imposing and out of the norm for a lucario. Begrudgingly, he had agreed. He thought the hospital staff were idiots, but didn't let that stop him from obeying. He wanted Turner to have whatever chance at surviving he possibly could.

Difficult decisions were made that day, and they were made without Cobalt's consultation or consent. He was left out in the pokémon lounge for hours. Finally, after night fell, a hospital worker came out to inform him that Turner had passed away. No further explanation given, under the pretext that Cobalt, only being a pokémon, had no right to know how the proceedings had gone unless Turner's parents opted to tell him.

Turner's mother opted not to. She opted to yell at Cobalt for not taking proper care of him on their trip to the spring. Turner's father gave a bit more information, explaining that even though resuscitation had been possible, the boy already had a living will in place requesting that it not be done. Cobalt had not known about this, and felt betrayed that Turner had never discussed that with him.

Ultimately, the father could only shrug and offer the hyper-muscled lucario a slot on his pokémon team, in memory of the son they both loved. To the father's chagrin, Cobalt refused, and bolted. He never came back. That had been three years ago now.

The mew, invisible but still lurking nearby, had watched all of these things in sadness, feeling the weight of Cobalt's grief slowly pushing his psychic help away. In the end, the pokémon wished him well... and flew away.

* * *

Scene 15: Aura and Psi

Cobalt awoke suddenly to a vision of the dark sky above him. Rain was pouring down on his face, and he coughed and sputtered to expel the water from his mouth and nostrils. Then, pulling his legs up and kicking downward, he got to his feet in one motion. He looked around urgently, seeing Espa still in a trance near him, her mouth gutturally reciting a few final human words from his memories before falling silent. The last words she said were, "Cobalt, I love you," spoken in much the same way that Turner used to say it.

The hulking lucario felt his muscles whirring with power even as the tears formed and poured forth from his eyes. He wanted to fall to his knees and weep, and this time he let himself - even if only for a few precious moments. He quivered with emotional release, and more and more his muscles plumped outward, the energy of his aura forming a potent matrix with the psychic nudgings and consolations from his new partner, the espeon.

Cobalt.

"Y-yeah?"

You didn't deserve to be treated that way. You also look beautiful when you're that big, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

"Thank you..." The muscles in his back were audibly rippling; the bones of his spine seemed to thicken and strengthen.

Please let your strength flow, Cobalt. Let the strength both your trainer and a certain friendly mew wished upon you flow freely to oppose the destruction that is coming today.

"Yes..." The girth of his arms expanded nearly twofold and crackled with blue aura power. His legs followed suit, as did his chest and belly. Down to the very soles of his feet his body trembled with power!

The lucario brought his hands together in the rain and began to rumble with the makings of a roar. His entire body glowed with a blinding blue sheen, and the sphere of energy between his padded palms grew to an immense size, engulfing both himself and Espa in several meters of blue radiance. "RUuuuuuuu!!" Cobalt rumbled.

"Kaaaaa!" The sphere flared and expanded larger.

"RIO!!" Cobalt's arms aimed directly upward, his palms open and outward-facing, as the sphere of energy grew superheated and launched skyward as a great white pillar of light. It widened to engulf the area, Cobalt's body becoming a conduit for a wild reaction in the flow of the world's aura. Plants in the pillar's radius grew abruptly more vibrant and lush, maturing and growing rapidly in the surge of power. Meanwhile, the storm winds stopped coming in powerful gusts, and regulated themselves into a steady twenty-kilometer-per-hour wind which, while strong, would not tear apart any hospitals. The pillar grew wider in the sky than it was on the ground, the energy fanning out and imposing a new equilibrium on the air currents clashing in the area.

The swirling funnels of the three tornadoes began to weaken. After several intense minutes of this energy channeling through Cobalt, they had come to an end, with only some high winds and minor thunderstorm activity remaining.

Espa looked anxiously at the monstrously muscled lucario as the flow of energy tapered off to its conclusion. She now found it even harder than usual to take her eyes off his plump and potent balls, which seemed even larger and more fruitful than ever after that wave of energy.

Wait. The wave of energy, Espa thought to herself, taking note of the rapidly overgrown plants that had surged up all around them. I was inside of it! Oh no...

It began to hit Espa that her sexual desire for Cobalt had multiplied itself by more than ten times during the last several minutes, and she was pretty sure it wasn't all from him bulking up so sharply, though that definitely hadn't hurt matters...

"See, I told you we'd be fine," said Cobalt, as if nothing bad or difficult had happened. Then, more seriously, he added: "But... Espa... thank you. Let's get out of here together before human press agents show up investigating the light... and then let's have a nice, long talk." He sniffed the air a few times. "E-Espa?"

The espeon let out a loud, mrowling sound as her tail swished perkily. C-Cobalt. I'm coming into heat.

"Wha?"

It's not... quite time yet. Please, let's get out of here. I feel... funny.

* * *

Scene 16: Why Did the Lucario Cross the Road?

Espa's ride in Cobalt's arms - circuitously back around to that hot spring they both so thoroughly enjoyed - went much slower than the first, dashing run had gone. It didn't go slower because Cobalt wasn't strong enough to do it faster; it went slower because they were both too horny not to enjoy themselves along the way.

"E-espa. Stop! I need to c-cross the road!"

The espeon in Cobalt's arms looked nearly asleep, her gem glowing brightly and her body pulsating with a pinkish purple aura of her power. Her vaginal juices were leaking shamelessly onto Cobalt's belly, while a similar aura of power had engulfed Cobalt's groin in its entirely: loins, cock, and large and succulent balls. Through that encasing power, Espa was steadily stimulating every bit of Cobalt's sexual flesh. Driving him wild with desire and drawing his balls nearer and nearer to spilling their seed.

I'll confuse the humans not to notice us. You cross like a proud male. She panted lustily, empathically feeling her partner's building pleasure. Don't worry about cumming. When you ejaculate, let it flow. You'll have more ready for me by the time I'm at the height of my heat.

"But Espa, we, b-barely - aaaaah..."

Shut up and carry me, you wonderful lucario.

"Y-yes ma'am."

That's a good boy.

He walked proudly across the highway between traffic, resolutely staving off his pleasures as much as he could, but feeling his massively muscled body almost going weak at the knees from the espeon's assaults on his nerves.

In the wake of the aura channeling and the stimulation that followed, his member had plumped and bulged to an absurd length of almost a third of a meter, with a girth that more than matched it. He was glad no human males were noticing him - they'd all be envious if they could.

By the time the pair reached the other side, Cobalt could do little more than weave his way into the bushes and get firmly out of sight of the road before collapsing onto his back and letting the espeon stretch out her paws along his massively ripped belly. Looking almost dazed, and with her tail swishing almost as if it were flagging, the espeon stepped over and gave the shaft several ardent licks with her tongue, which crackled with additional energy of its own.

Cobalt yelled, moaned, and felt a volcano building in his loins, rumbling, rumbling...

Then suddenly all of the stimulation stopped, the espeon sensing the nearness of his climax. His penis throbbed, and his lungs heaved with a great panting. The nearness of the ejaculation subsided... and then the stimulation started full-force again.

Then just before he would have been brought over the edge, the espeon stopped once again.

"Hey... you stop that!" Cobalt playfully whined. "Y-you're too good at this!"

One of the perks of bein' able to read minds.

"Aaaaah..."

Why doesn't my big man get up and fight it? Stand up and keep walking. I'll be here... licking and licking.

"Aaaaah!"

Cobalt forced himself through the pleasure to stand, and found that he barely had to hold Espa at all - her body was seemingly magnetized to his own now, hanging upside down, her paws still on his belly, her tongue working devilishly against his shaft, with all of her fiendish precision and timing. Feeling waves of renewed motivation, he stepped forward one pace at a time, his paws striking the ground with heavy stomps as he struggled not to fall over and see stars. The espeon's edging continued, and before long Cobalt reached down to grab his own cock, only to find that hand zapped with a spark of painful purple bolts.

Let meeeee!! Espa said maniacally, licking faster and faster now, her edgings getting a bit less precise.

"Hu... hurry!!" Cobalt roared, stepping forward several paces, and feeling his balls draw up with painful tightness.

The espeon panted, turned, and grinded her nethers along the base of Cobalt's cock, pushing the lips of her pussy all the way down to the tip and all the way back up again. Wave after surging wave of psychisc stimulation shot through Cobalt's body, and he turned his legs outward and thrust both beefy arms up diagonally from his sides as he roared in triumph: "Ru... ruu... kaaa... RIO!!!!"

Spurt after gorgeous spurt launched itself from the mighty lucario's cocktip, splattering the ground with seed so potent that it practically glowed with aura while it lay there. "Aaah... kaaa.... kaaa.... kario..."

He felt lightheaded. He wanted to pass out, but he didn't. He firmly remained standing. But now it was the espeon's turn to be the nice one.

You just relax as you are. I'll move us the rest of the way to the hot springs. Cobalt felt his body losing its weight, and before long found himself hovering above the ground in a bubble of Espa's power, her little body still surfing atop his belly as she lay him horizontal in midair and then moved him forward, lifting the both of them up the slopes in the direction of the springs. Cobalt smiled, and relaxed, letting himself nap in the soothing coolness of his afterglow.

* * *

Scene 17: Almost

"You're insane when you go into heat... you know that, right?" Cobalt couldn't help laughing, but he couldn't help feeling a little proud of himself either.

The espeon lying at his side swished her tail. Nearby, a cloud of twigs and leaves were hovering in awkward arcs through the air, surrounded by the pinkish-purple glow of the espeon's power. She was telekinetically fidgeting with them.

I guess I am, Espa admitted. I feel... so floaty.

"Yeah, and you're making everything else around you floaty too."

Hehe... yup.

Night had recently fallen, and the two were relaxing together at the spring's edge, resting and periodically dozing, while an almost-full, waxing moon rose on the horizon.

Cobalt's body had reverted back some from its extreme muscularity, which hadn't surprised either of them; he had stopped channeling that intensive flow of aura some time ago. Some of the effects on him seemed to be more enduring, however: he remained about twenty percent taller than he had been before, and looked much bulkier overall. Whatever had happened to his bones seemed not to have undone itself in the slightest. His spikes were visibly larger, enough that they looked quite dangerous and imposing, while not being so large that he couldn't stay dextrous with them. His muscle tone remained intense, with every surface of his body looking well beyond "fit" and substantially into "ripped" territory. Yet his muscular ripples were smooth and aesthetically pleasing. He did not look like he had taken some sort of extreme steroid, but he did look like he had been training hard in a gym for quite some time - and training correctly and with good nutrition, at that.

When a similar level of growth had happened to him before, on the fateful day of Turner's death, Cobalt's firm subconscious rejection of the mew's influence had eventually undone even the changes to his skeletal structure... but he held no such rejection in his mind now, and he fully intended to keep the flow of aura in his body strong enough, and his training diligent enough, to make this shape permanent. Permanent as his minimum, anyway! The lucario's tail wagged lazily at the thought. He felt wonderful - simply outstanding.

"So uh... when do you think you're gonna be ready?" he couldn't help but ask.

Mmmm... before too long, sweetie... before too long.

"Sweetie. Listen to you. We met barely a whole day ago."

Telepathy and circumstances let us cram a whole lot of relating into a short length of time. I don't care. I want you. I choose you.

The lucario grinned. "Fair enough!"

* * *

Scene 18: The Inevitable

When Cobalt next awoke from his napping, it was deep into the night, and the smell in the espeon's nethers had gotten even more intoxicating. He found his cock unsheathing automatically in response - unsheathing, and a bit more!

"Hey, cute little eevee thing..." Cobalt tapped Espa on her shoulder, causing her gem to make an oddly inverted, inward pulse, as if it were absorbing energy from its surroundings.

Heeeeey, she responded, making a chuckling "Espa esp esp!" sound physically at the same time. Hey, I feel like I'm in love.

"I bet you do."

Can you help me feel more like I'm in love? Random bits of dust, some of the twigs from before, and some small stones began hovering erratically around them.

"Let me guess... your heat is still accelerated because of how it got started."

I don't know! I don't know! I just know I really, REALLY...

The espeon didn't think another word at him. She merely got to her feet and stretched backward in a way that stuffed her nethers directly into Cobalt's face, and let her tail hang off to one side, flagging downward in surrender...

The lucario let out an instinctive growl, taking several licks at the presented lips before losing himself into the flow of his aura and his needs. A time for the continuity of life was at hand, and his penis was swelling rapidly to do the job. Hurriedly, and a little clumsily, he rushed to get it into her, fearing his knot might soon engorge beyond the point of any possible entry.

Espa gasped at the prodding, and soon let her gasping turn into a moan: "Eeeeeeeeeeohn!"

"That's a good girl," Cobalt said huskily, getting onto all fours and squatting low to mount her. "Ruuu... kaaa... aaaah!"

Her heat, her wetness - Cobalt couldn't slow down once he got started. He didn't even slow down much when he heard Espa cry out from the pains of this being her first time. He had a job to do, a duty to her, a duty to all lucario! Grunting and frantic, he pounded thrust after powerful thrust into her warm and tight tunnel. The thick muscles of his arms flexed and strained as they accommodated the unusual quadrupedal position - but accommodate they did, and quite successfully.

Mercifully for Espa, Cobalt's penis had lost some of its extreme size as well since the departure of the aura overload, but it remained more than enough for her to comfortably handle, and her vagina struggled still to dilate enough to accommodate it properly.

The next few minutes of their mating saw Espa growing more and more relaxed, Cobalt more and more rhythmic and panting, and both of them more lost in the moment than ever before. Cobalt leaned in and nipped her ears, dug his hind paws into the rocky dust and scrabbled forward at times to keep a good purchase on his mate's back. As flesh struck flesh, the knotting of Cobalt's member began to build, swelling and throbbing inside the espeon's already taxed pussy, and soon enough sealing the entrance shut as her own highly aroused muscles clamped down...

"Espa... I... love you... hurraaaaagh!"

The espeon could barely hear or comprehend him, her own body too lost in the uncharted pleasure of mating. Waves of what she knew must be orgasm began rolling through her; her tiny mouth screamed a piercing cry, and her mind let fall all of the little objects it had been lifting. Cobalt's eruption into her was accompanied by the sounds of so many little twigs and stones striking the ground. The lucario huffed and yipped in triumph, feeling a big wave of his seed pumping out, his balls throbbing and tight, the espeon's passage growing more and more moist with his fluids. Deep inside of her, his sperm squirmed toward their prize.

They remained there like that, wordlessly, grunting and quietly moaning, for several minutes. Cobalt's knot remained firmly locked inside of Espa, and she did not complain. She took it all. The canine fighter continued cumming periodically, filling her more and more, and driving him further into an interlocking loop of pleasurable buildup followed by satisfaction followed by pleasurable buildup once again.

A few more minutes passed, with no sign of deflation, and Cobalt began feeling the first doubts creeping in between the highs of his ejaculations. "Can we interbreed?"

Espa didn't verbally respond, and only wiggled her butt a little as if to say, Stop being such a worrier.

"I think we might be able to interbreed." His voice sounded less and less secure, and more and more worried.

The espeon turned and glared at him. Of course we can interbreed! You're going to be the father of my kids. Now stay in me and keep seeding!

Cobalt felt his skin flushing. "Y-yes ma'am. Absolutely."

The espeon sent a surge of psychic energy through him, sparking the energy of his aura, and causing his muscles to wobble and bulk up further once again.

Such a big, stud of a lucario... that's my mate... and don't you forget it.

Cobalt relaxed once again and let his energy flow. He didn't struggle against her urgings, and let his body continue to swell with the matrix of power she was both urging upon him and making easier to maintain. She would be his little psychic, and he would be her big fighter, and together, they would confront whatever the rest of their lives held for them: storms, Rockets, abusive trainers... and even babies.

Story (C) 2013 dolphinsanity. Cobalt the lucario is the intellectual property of his player, Passer-by, and is used with permission. Espa the espeon is an original character designed by dolphinsanity for this story but may be freely used and developed by passer-by as well. The Pokémon or Pocket Monsters franchise belongs to Nintendo.