FSE

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The sensation of a jolt brought me back to reality, some half-formed little dream dissipating from eyes I hadn’t realized had slid shut. Wendy slid off of Staccato in front of me, and as I came to my senses with a start, I realized our path was barred.

A pair of trainers, older than us, and glowering as though looking to pick a fight. The men spoke in hushed tones to each other, as I joined Wendy on the pavement, shrugging my backpack to one shoulder, hand coming to rest on the short mallet I used for my tent stakes. I couldn’t say what it was that saw me arming myself rather than facing them as a trainer, but the whole situation set my hair on end. My free hand saw Tempest out before I said a word to them. Her posture reflected mine and for a long moment everything was very still.

“Gentlemen.” I said, as I moved between them and Wendy. “I assume you aren’t here to talk about the weather. Let’s get this dealt with. I have places to be.”

Wendy called Penance out who surged forward, snarling as she stood beside Tempest. They responded with a pair of machokes, who responded to a series of snaps, whistles and claps as the fight unfolded.

Tempest knew better than to take the fight head to head, and nimbly ducked out of the way of the surging offense. While she worked to separate the pair, Penance and Wendy tried to distract them both with agile attacks back and forth against the duo. It was a fair gambit, but she didn’t have the skill to pull it off and took hard kicks that robbed her of breath and momentum.

It was then that I realized the duo wasn’t looking at the fight, or at any of us. I shoulder-checked Wendy out of the way as the blow came down, taking it across the shoulder. Fortunately, the weight of it was only glancing. A sound like a rattle marking the passage of some kind of weapon. With a shuffle to catch my momentum, I pivoted, and countered with a mule kick. As I felt my heel sink home, pressure built, then yielded as the man crumpled to the ground, scrambling away from me, clutching his side. I tapped the buttons on my pokeballs instinctively as I moved towards Wendy, who had recovered quickly, calling to Staccato as she moved.

For just a moment, everything was chaos. Staccato had flanked the ongoing fight and bit one of the trainers in the face, rearing up to kick with everything he had. The trainer, bloodied and disoriented scrambled back, but found his egress checked by Wendy, who had pulled some kind of hooked tool from her bag, sinking it into his forearm and twisting savagely.

My hand swung the mallet from out of the side pocket in my bag, throwing it as hard as I could at the machoke pressing the advantage against Penance, who used the distraction to sink her teeth home in a savage bite. Tempest took the cue to follow up with a raking blow of her claws, bloodying his face and buying Penance time to get clear.

Cocoa surged behind me, tackling a man and slamming her head into his jaw before he could recover. Mira tripped up the one I had kicked and bit his hands as he tried to recover, but moved to stay by my side rather than pursuing him.

My hand swung to my hip as I shifted posture, the unchecked machoke turned towards me, and as I ducked out of the way of his grasping hands, I hit the last button.

I knew it was a mistake before she even fully became aware of the melee I had thrown her into. Her voice echoed in my mind, at once ascertaining the nature of the fight, and plucking at the fragile strings of my thoughts as though playing an instrument. Every sound, every motion seemed to spark a fresh new headache, and her anger grew as she realized how urgent things were that I’d call her that way. I felt it, building inside her, and for a moment, every sound in my ears was replaced with her furious snarling.

It seemed both an eternity, and an instant. I felt a sensation like violent tearing. Then the screaming began. Claire took one look at the scene, and the men and their pokemon all started dropping to their knees. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Somewhere in the midst of it all, I felt Mira scramble to hit the button, but Claire’s cold confidence was etched into my vision as I tried to blink past the roaring echo in my head. I saw the vision in triplicate. Her eyes flicking from one to the next, my eyes transfixed on the scene, and Mira’s view from below and beside me. It was nauseating. Well beyond an excruciating experience. My eyes strained to make sense of it and my head pounded with the sensation of being in three places at once. My stomach heaved all at once, and there was nothing poor Mira could do but cover her face and whine as it happened.

I couldn’t say how much time had passed. Or quite where I was. Tempest’s hands framed my vision as I came to my senses, and I felt the stickiness of blood from her fingers. Cocoa was nearby, a wary gaze cast to the road behind us. Mira and Penance were near Wendy, who trembled like a leaf.

“We good?” I asked, my hand pinching the bridge of my nose, trying to shake the lingering headache, and images that hung in my mind as though burned in. “Mostly?”

Wendy shook her head. “You hear the stories…” She said, as she moved to sit next to me. “People stealing pokemon. Attacking trainers. You hear the stories. We all get warned about it.”

I pulled open my bottle of water and set to washing Mira’s fur, who shook off my apologies and nuzzled against me. “It doesn’t matter. It’s nothing. Just so long as you’re okay, that’s all I need to know.” She said, as I did my best to clean up the mess I'd made of her. I felt horrible for it, but if she had any concern at all for her fur, it was very little compared to her concern for me. Her ribbons wouldn't leave my hands for a moment.

“You remember what to do?” I asked, with a gentle hand on her shoulder, as I pulled the tablet out of my bag. It was drilled into us. If we ever got into trouble. Got lost. Got hurt. The distress beacon. It might be five minutes, it might be five hours, but if we had any signal at all, they could pinpoint us. They could find us. Even if we didn’t have a signal having the beacon broadcasting on radio frequency, especially if we could get to high ground, could be the difference between life and death.

“Think it matters? They’re long gone by now. We won.” Wendy shook her head. “How did you know? You saw it coming, even the ones from behind.” She rubbed her shoulder, and stared off into the distance. “If it’d just been me…” She trailed off and shivered at the thought.

“I used to be a tournament fighter.” I said, interrupting her train of thought, resting my hand on her unbruised shoulder. “Truth is, I have more belts than most league trainers have badges.” I said with a sigh. “You can learn a lot about someone from posture, expression, balance…. But some things are a little less subtle. They were looking behind us, not at us, or at the fight. I just … guessed, honestly.”

“I’m glad you did, but I’m going to be nursing this arm for a while.” Wendy said, bitterly cussing. “And I lost my hoof pick to that bastard.”

Penance spoke up, nuzzling Wendy’s leg. “I saw it happen. He’s going to need a doctor.” She said, with a happy bark. “You made it count!”

“A doct…” My hand flew to my tablet, scrambling to make a call before I could finish the thought..

It took six rings before the nurse answered, and I skipped the pleasantries to get to the point. She’d be on the phone to every medical facility in the area before our distress beacon got answered. For her part, she was glad I actually called her, even if the circumstances weren’t ideal. She assured me, if they went anywhere legitimate for care, their goose was cooked.

Tempest deflated the sense of joy I felt. “If you were out beating up trainers and taking their pokemon, would you go anywhere you might get recognized?”

It was a good question, a surprising bit of insight as she sat behind me, rubbing my shoulders. “Don’t worry about it. We walk from here. All of us. If they don’t have the sense to leave us alone, I’ll help you bury them.” She said, confidently. “Worst case scenario, I’ll delight in watching Claire take them out, one by one.”

Tempest’s laugh brought the cold, almost cruel expression in Claire’s eyes to the forefront of my mind. Whatever she was doing, it was her intent to harm them. As much as she could, as quickly as she could.

The idea of it was chilling. It was taboo. It was something that should never have happened. In an ideal world, according to all of the rules, every law, no trainer is permitted to ever allow or command their pokemon to harm another person. They are expected to minimize the potential for harm to other pokemon, for that matter. League certified battles are full of rules and bylaws designed to minimize the risks of injury.

Claire didn’t hesitate even a moment, and picked them off with cold precision. What was more, I got the sense she enjoyed doing so.

I felt sick. Nobody said a word as I scrambled away, on hands and knees, what little I had in my stomach coming back up.

After a few moments of dry heaving, I found my feet, and took my bag from Tempest, who didn’t remark at all on the tremble in my hand. “I’ll leave the beacon on. They’ll find us and then it’s out of our hands. But… leave out anything our pokemon did. I’ll take the blame for the incidentals.” I said, with a sigh. “It will just be easier that way.”

We’d managed to hike another few miles up the road when an officer riding a tauros caught up to us. Lying about it proved to be pointless, she marked the blood on Staccato’s muzzle, and Tempest’s claws before even asking us how it happened. It did make explaining the situation easier when I described the assailants.

“They’ve been active in the area.” She remarked, with a sigh, her hand coming to her forehead in an exasperated motion. “Two trainers with one pokemon between them? Must have assumed you were an easy target.” She shook her head.

“So you’re missing a hoof pick, and a mallet. One of them has bites in the face, and a puncture wound in the arm. One might have broken ribs. There’s a machoke with deep lacerations and bite wounds.” She shook her head. “Sounds like they got what was coming to them. But you didn’t hear that from me.”

Wendy shook her head. “Not by half. I’d have left them swinging from the trees if only I had the chance.” She said with grim certainty. “And you did hear that from me. When you find them, you put an end to it, ya hear?”

I nodded at that. “A shame I forgot to buy rope.” I said, with a sigh. “But…” I pulled out my tablet and picked out where we were when things happened. “Bring some with you. And bring friends. If they were there waiting, they probably aren’t hiding far away. Anything in the area strike you?” I asked the officer, who shook her head.

“Few old forestry depots in the area, but like as not they’re just staking the road from the woods somewhere. Still, might make a good place to scurry off to. We’ll go check it out.” She said, reaching for her radio. “And we’ll bring lots of friends. Here’s hoping we get these … “She bit back the next word, and shook her head.

As she turned away to handle her work, I shouldered my bag, killing the distress beacon, and slipping the tablet into the side pocket. “As for us, we need to get moving. I want to find us somewhere to stay tonight. Preferably with people.”

On that note, we were all in agreement, and the miles fell away quickly despite our caution.

People, as it turned out, was little more than a gas station, and an old motor lodge. Still, they were friendly enough, and the room was clean, if a little dusty. It wasn’t quite big enough for all of us to be comfortable. Surely it wasn’t big enough for Staccato. Wendy tried to apologize, but he just nudged her towards me.

“Take care of her tonight. Don’t let anything happen to her. I’ll be right here if you need me. If anything happens, you make sure I’m the first one to know about it, understand?” He said, looking towards the horizon as Wendy put him away.

“He’s upset.” She said, staring at the pokeball. “He doesn’t want to admit it. But all that tension, he’s rattled.” She shook her head. “Hell of a thing we had to do today. Hell of a hard thing I needed him to do.”

Penance stared up at her, silent for a long moment before following Tempest into the room. “Only hard part was not being able to finish the job.” She said, with Tempest murmuring agreement as she headed straight for the shower.

Cocoa gave Mira a big hug, before coming to my side, taking my hand and nuzzling into my arm. “See you tomorrow, sweetie. Don’t worry too much about it. They’ll keep you safe, and I’m right here if you need an extra set of hands.”

The five of us settled in, and I shrugged off the bag, letting it come to rest heavily on the floor. I all but fell onto the surface of one of the old beds, staring up at the ceiling. “You should get your shower next. I don’t mind mine cold.” I said, with a sigh as Penance hopped up beside me, curling up against my side.

From the other room, I heard Tempest, fiddling with the shower, the sound of the water, washing away the day. I didn’t need to look to see… the way the water pooled red at the bottom of the tub. The way her fur dripped with the blood. I tried to shut it out, the thought of it. But it was impossible. Wendy’s voice startled me away from those thoughts, and I was grateful for the disruption.

“If you’re sure. It’s … been a hell a week, hasn’t it?” Wendy asked, sitting on the bed opposite the one I had all but claimed. “Should I duck out to the gas station? See if there’s anything edible there? I think… maybe you should just take a break, you know? Don’t worry about cooking anything.”

“Yeah. We can all go together.” I said, reaching down to run my hand over Penance’s back. The familiar weight of Mira joined me, coming to rest on my chest, her ribbons slipping over my cheeks. “Think we can find some pecha chews?” She asked, with a happy little smile. “I’d like a little treat if we can.”

“You earned one. You all did... “ I replied, closing my eyes. “If they have them, and they’re not twenty years old, they’re yours.” I teased. “If they are twenty years old, I’m sending them to a museum.”

“Find me some jerky.” Tempest called from the shower. “Spicy jerky. And I’ll share if you want some!” I laughed, we had similar taste in treats, I’d discovered. Simple tastes, hearty and filling.

Dinner was very much a filling thing, but it wasn’t as good as my cooking. Not by a long shot. Still, I was glad for a chance to eat and rest and not worry about the details. Despite that, I laid awake for a long time in the stifling humid warmth of the cheap room. Every little sound set me on edge, and more than once, my mind invented noises that didn’t exist.