Ch. 47
Imported from SF2 with no description.
--Trainer--
I could feel the tension settling in as the hours dragged on. I did what I could to fight it, and I kept myself stretched and limbered up, but it was obvious that everyone else was getting tired of waiting around.
I wished I could have said, as the sun began to set, that they’d look back on it grumbling about boredom and wasted time.
But Helena was many things. A liar was not one of them.
I saw the light first, from the sky, a flare fired up in a long arc, flickering, bright, illuminating the field as four men approached from the road. They moved quickly, making their way to the cabin, shut, locked, and dark. As one crouched low to open the lock, I made my move. Sharp point catching one in the thigh, twisting and wrenching them back as I delivered a vicious kick to the face of the man trying to pick the lock.
I hated doing it. I hated everything about it, but surprise was the only sure advantage I was going to have, so I made it count. I twisted as I pulled the heavy branch out and kicked the screaming man down, stepping over him and shoulder checking the lockpick into the door frame as I moved. Insult to injury, he was already unconscious from the kick.
The other two scrambled back, as I shoved my way past the two I’d wounded, avoiding the dangerous jabs of my rough spear as they hopped down from the porch, shouting warning and tapping the pokeballs on their hips.
From behind me, I heard the start of a roar cut short, and the sounds of a scuffle, falling to the ground, and the pained sounds of assault, but I couldn’t spare a moment’s glance. The scyther had been waiting from above. He got the first shot in, at least. It would have to be enough. I lunged, closing the distance with two broad sweeps and followed with a thrust that brought the club end of the weapon hard into the ribs of one of the trainers, as he buckled, I delivered him to the ground with a second strike, my heel crashing against the back of his head, planting him firmly on the ground. The other broke ranks and began to run for the treeline.
He didn’t get far, the ground had been trapped, and the pitfall delivered him to a dozen jagged points waiting to receive him with grim purpose. He shrieked, but before I could do anything else, I felt the staggering force of a blow from behind. The flash of phantom lights, the haze of pain and the sound of my own heartbeat thundering in my ears as I tried to move out of the way of the next impact.
I thought I’d just been concussed, and in truth may have been, but the rumbling in the ground wasn’t my imagination, the nidoqueen had charged in, battering the pokemon who managed to bloody me. I got to my feet, dazed and shaky, but rejoined the fray, leaving her to handle the pokemon while I got back to the cabin.
When I saw the flickering flames from the hand of the trainer, I knew I’d guessed right. Helena managed to knock him down on top of the glass bottle, and escape the flames as he panicked. She joined me at my side as I bellowed into the treeline. “Who else wants to bleed today?”
The man who had just failed to firebomb the cabin didn’t get far, Cocoa headbutted him as he tried to get up, and left him in the dirt as she moved to my other side. Mira called from the rooftop and I heard the roar from behind the cabin, one very angry ursaring making someone regret every choice they ever made.
I could feel the blood dripping from my chin, and brought a hand up. Helena looked up in worry as I traced it up to the source, but then I laughed as loudly as I could, smearing it across my face and striding forward.
“You’re a fucking lunatic…” Helena said from behind me. “What the hell?”
“Yeah, good thing we’re on the same side, isn’t it?” I asked quietly before screaming into the woods again. “WHO’S THE CRAZY ONE, NOW?!”
--Mira--
I understood. What his plan was. What he was really trying to do. It looked unhinged. But I saw. Ambush predation, lure them into the trap they never would’ve found otherwise, bloody them but leave them alive to scream and shriek. Scream and rave like a lunatic… and all of it to make them hesitate. All of it was a ploy, to buy time.
The cabin was the goal. The cabin, and the ranger. A symbol. A sign. The only one who would know if something happened. The only one who could get help. He knew they’d try to take it down. He had Helena waiting while he did his job. She only had to stop the one, and I only had to make sure they didn’t get in from behind. The scyther was waiting just to cover his back for a moment, and then to escape. He didn’t manage that, but it was a good effort. It looked good, right up until the machoke swatted him like a pesky mosquito and punched master in the head. I was worried but he got right back up.
It was all a ploy. Bloody them and back away, lure and redirect and do anything he could to keep them from coming all at once. It was … there was something almost magical about it.
And then it all fell apart.
--Trainer--
I saw it coming before Helena did, my reflexes moved me in front of her as the sandslash sprang up from the ground, claws and fury. There wasn’t anything I could do, the branch splintered under the assault and I took a raking blow across my arm. I countered with a kick but only got more claws for the trouble.
As I put my weight on my wounded leg, first my shin felt strange.
Then it crumpled.
Then it hurt.
So much for getting away. All I could do was force myself up to a knee and get a good shot in on the sandslash before it could get away. My knuckles caught it hard under the jaw and left it staggering sideways away from me. I tried to move again, but there was nothing I could do with it. I'd rebroken the bone, and probably worse than last time. The sandslash readied itself to attack me again, and I had no defense.
Helena didn’t let it go anywhere. She charged in, catching the sandslash from the blindside, a vicious slash of her claws that all but leveled it as she moved to my side, trying to get underneath my arm.
“Come on! We have to go! Right now! We’ve done what we can, we need to go!” She shouted at me, as I tried to fight through the haze of pain and reassess the situation.
Cocoa grabbed me from beneath my arms, and hauled me back, towards the cabin as the poachers regrouped and advanced. The scyther had found his way back to us, but taking a look at the situation, looked to me, and shook his head.
“I’m sorry.” He said, as he brought his blade to rest on my shoulder, a moment’s compassion for the condemned before he fled into the woods.
The nidoqueen and ursaring had managed to put the machoke out of the fight, and began to move close to me, but I waved them off.
“Go! Warn the others, we’ve failed here! Helena, you too. There’s nothing you can do for me. Cocoa, get Mira, and get out, understand? Take these and go!” I said, shoving the pokeballs into her hands. “Go! Don’t look back. Whatever you do. Just… don’t look back.”
Cocoa tried to protest, but I reached up, looking her in the eyes. “Trust me. You have to trust me. You’ll be faster without me. You have to be faster.”
I felt her bitter tears on my shoulder as she shook her head, shouting up to the roof and pulling me to the cabin, as Helena and the nidoqueen left. The nidoqueen trampled one of the poachers on her way out, stomping him into the ground for good measure. I couldn’t help but smile at that, one more down.
“Cocoa, you’ve done everything you can. I need you to save Mira. Understand? Your staying doesn’t save me. Your going saves her. I need that. Please.”
She shook her head again and sobbed. Mira had scrambled down and wrapped her ribbons around my shoulders. “We’re not leaving you. Don’t ask it of us.”
I pulled them both close. “Don’t ask me to watch them hurt you. I need you to go. I’m telling you to go. Before it’s too late. I can handle what they’re going to do to me. My heart couldn’t bear what they’d do to you, understand? Leaving me is a mercy.”
Mira stared into my eyes for a moment before her ribbons wrapped around Cocoa’s arm. “Time to go.” She said, as she tugged the miltank away. It was under protest, I knew. But it was the kindest thing she could do for me, and she knew it, too.
Had it been for nothing? I couldn’t believe that. It was just bad luck. It was bad luck all the way around. As the first blow found me, I didn’t bother trying to scream. All I could do was curl up and try to shield myself.
--Helena--
Fucking hell. It all made sense, but all too late. Pain, suffering, no joy. He took the wounds for her. For all of us. For me. He sent his pokemon, his family away and took the wounds for them, too. Cocoa and Mira had caught up to us as we began to distance ourselves from the cabin.
I hadn’t even seen it coming, the fucking sandslash. He did, and saving me was about to cost him everything. I could feel it, the darkness, the fear, the pain. I could feel his fear, his worry, and theirs, for him in kind. It all made sense, and all too late.
“I’m going back.” I said, circling around. “It was my fight before his. I’m not leaving him!”
Cocoa pivoted and move to my side. “Don’t reckon you have a plan?” She asked, as Mira leapt up to the top of her head.
“Fuck plans.” The ursaring said, as she grabbed the nidoqueen’s arm. “Can you carry him out?” She asked as the nidoqueen bristled at the touch, and sighed.
“You’d be better suited for it. I can get us some breathing room. After everything he did, I owe him that much.” The nidoqueen replied. “We all owe him that much.”
They had dragged him out into the dirt, and were taking turns kicking him. But we weren’t going to let them have their fun. The nidoqueen roared as she charged in, interrupting the men who looked up and scattered. She picked one to give chase to, and I picked another, chasing him down to attack him from behind and sink my teeth into his stomach as he tried to get away. I didn’t linger, but moved to shield the trainer as the ursaring scrambled in and none too gently threw his battered, unconscious body over her shoulders, before hauling ass to the tree line, shouting at us to get out.
--Mira--
They went back for him. All of them. They didn’t leave him. But it wasn’t without a price. The poachers had split up and turned to fight again. We were about to be on the receiving end of it. Like master was.
Like hell.
I could feel it, prickling at the edges of my consciousness. Like a limb waking up. Ten thousand needles letting me know it was still there. Letting me know what I needed to do. I felt something I’d never felt before. A kind of warmth in the ends of my ribbons. All of them, their feelings, their worry… but mostly their anger.
It was my weapon. The energy of their emotions. The energy of mine. I couldn’t see anything but my white-hot anger, and the poacher closest to where master had been. The look on his face was priceless. He was transfixed by the glow, the radiance as if I’d pulled the moon down between us to hurl at him.
I might as well have. The sound of the impact was like a clap of thunder that didn’t know how to leave. It didn’t so much knock him back as tear him off the ground and throw him. I felt the ground shake, even from my perch on Cocoa’s head, and everything fell still in the deafening wake of the assault.
It was exhausting, everything ached. I’d pulled muscles I didn’t know existed, and my head was pounding both from the sound and from the strain. And I knew the next one to try was going to get more of the same.
Master was free. The ursaring had pulled him away. The nidoqueen had turned a diversion into a rampage, and was chasing fleeing men down. The ones she didn’t simply run over, she physically picked up to slam down into the dirt.
Helena didn’t leave the ursaring’s side, worry etched in her face as the trio made their way to the tree line. We weren’t far behind. I knew I didn’t need to say it. Cocoa and I both knew; we were never leaving him again.
--Helena--
We made it out of it. The ursaring carried him into the mountains, away from it all, away from the poachers, away from the cabin. We left it to them. To smash, or burn, whatever it was they were going to do. I hated it, but we did everything we could. He did more than anyone could have asked. We were all safe because of him.
And he would have traded himself away for that. Had traded himself away for that. Without a thought, without a moment’s care. Sent his family and stayed there if only to give them … give all of us a few more seconds of head start. We were all safe because of him, and now, he was safe because of us.
The nidoqueen understood that, his head resting in her lap, her hand holding his as he winced against the pain of all of his wounds. “Like a good father should have.” I knew what she was thinking, if she hadn’t been left alone to do it, maybe it would have been different. I couldn’t have said either way, but maybe so.
The ursaring left, once she got us hidden away. I didn’t ask where she was going, and she didn’t offer. It was enough that she got him out. Carried him on her back all that way. I owed her a favor that I’d never be able to repay, and she knew it.
I owed him even more.
Mira tried to soothe him, as best as she could. Her ribbons wrapped around his arms, and his free hand had come to rest on her side, idly stroking through her fur. She might not have understood, but I did. He was trying to comfort her. To keep her from worrying. To keep her from worrying as the bruises purpled, and the lacerations seeped.
Cocoa kept a wary eye towards the hill, but ran back when he spoke. It was hard to understand, he had a hard time speaking, with how swollen his face was. I hated that he had to repeat himself.
--Trainer--
“Think… that went well.” I coughed, wiping the blood from my swollen mouth, wishing I hadn’t moved as my ribs protested against the sudden tension. “Thank you.” I added, looking at Helena through my good eye. “You came back. Troublemaker… thank you.”
“We need to follow the others.” I more choked than said. “Find Wendy. Find Gwen. Find Annabelle.” Even the idea of going anywhere hurt. “Can’t let them go back. Trap. Have to hide for now.”
Mira brought her ribbon to my cheek, the softest, gentlest touch I’d ever felt. “Hush now.” She said quietly. “Isn’t it enough? For now, isn’t this enough?” She asked, as Cocoa murmured her agreement.
“Reckon you’re as stubborn as any tauros I ever met, but how d’ya figure as to actually do any of that?” She asked, gently squeezing my hand in hers. “Y’just rest. For once, let us look after ya, an’ not th’ other way ‘round.”
Helena curled up by my side, resting her head on my good leg. “You’re winding yourself up, and it’s not getting you anywhere. Right?” She asked, throwing my words back at me. “Stop being so fucking stubborn, it doesn’t take a ‘creepy absol prophecy’ to know you’re too hurt to go wandering the woods at midnight.”
The nidoqueen chuckled softly at that. “Looks like we’ve been outnumbered. But you know, have a little faith. I know Annabelle. She won’t rush in.” She sighed, running her hand over my head. “You were really brave, you know. It was… I needed to see it for myself. Helena had never a kind word or genuine worry about a human before. I get it now. Be good to her.”
Helena bristled at that, and was embarrassed even more by the nidoqueen’s laughter. “What? What the fuck is so funny? It’s not like I asked him to shove me in a pokeball!”
“Yet you’re cuddled up against him like a lap liepard. Admit it, you’re going to follow after him, aren’t you?” The nidoqueen chided, shaking with suppressed laughter.
“Oh shut it, you walking corkscrew.” Helena said with a growl. “So fucking what?”
“So … do it. If he’s someone you could be happy around, do it. We all know you’re bored here.” The nidoqueen replied, reaching down to poke Helena’s nose. “Troublemaker.”
I sighed at that, but reached out, my hand coming to rest on Helena’s shoulder. It occurred to me that it was the first time I initiated any kind of contact or familiarity with her. “Just promise me one thing?”
“What?” She asked, as she lifted her head, looking up at me. “Name it.”
“Don’t tell me what’s coming next unless you really need me to know. I … like not knowing.” I said, with a soft laugh, and a groan as I withdrew my hand to hold my ribs. “This one… definitely counted as ‘need to know’.”
--Helena--
He didn’t say no. He didn’t even try. The only thing he asked… was …
I remembered, as he finally managed to fall asleep, with all of us around him. I remembered the bright spotlights, the crowd of people all hushed silent. The man who had me making me perform. Fake prophecies spoken on my behalf, while he used me to figure out who he could con.
I remembered all the times he used me to get an advantage. Made me tell him everything I could. Most of it wasn’t even anything I could have told him by virtue of being an absol. Most of it was just he was shit at reading people. But I did what he said, and he got all the things he wanted, while people danced to his merry little tune. While they went hungry, he feasted. A life built on the lies and promises he pinned on me.
I remembered all the times he forced me to perform. Forced me to play that role. And with every heartbeat I heard through the bloodied cloth I was resting my head on, those memories felt more and more dim. Distant.
The one thing he asked of me… was to not try and tell him anything about tomorrow, unless I needed him to know it. To do the exact opposite of that cult worship bullshit. He didn’t have an ounce of deceit in him. Even with his body broken and battered, he’d have bled every last drop for someone else.
The nidoqueen was right. I was going to follow him. I didn’t … until that moment, at least, know for sure what that was going to mean.
I felt it though, the curious sensation. Satisfaction. Joy. Surprise, and laughter. Peace of mind, happiness. A tinge of melancholy, a sensation of gaining and of losing… I felt my happiness, and knew what I had to do.
“Mira, Cocoa?” I asked, as I looked up to them. “Can you two keep him here? I mean -right- here? I’m going to go get help.”
Cocoa nodded at that. “If it’s safe to. He’s not in any shape to move right now.”
Mira murmured agreement at that, but extended a ribbon to me. “He’s going to worry, you know. Hurry back.”
“Trust me.” I said, with a grin. “For the first time in my life, I know exactly what I’m doing.”