The Murkrow are cawing, the Pidgey are chirping and a small horde of Mankey has occupied the hot springs overnight and are now relaxing in it to stave off the cold temperatures of the Sinnoh region.
The early rays of the sun have just barely begun to peer into the valley that encloses the Tree of Life.
"Urghmu."
Something could be heard from the insides of a tent that is especially badly planted. The morning sun shines directly against it and the reflections from the mountain walls only make it worse.
"Too early." The voice can be heard again.
It belongs to Dawn. The owner then rubs her bleary eyes, turns over and tries to fall back asleep on her stomach.
Outside of the tents are Akari, Swole and all their pokemon, quietly sitting around yesterday's burnt out campfire and making instant coffee.
Akari playfully rolls her eyes as she takes in Dawn's dawn-complaints and struggles not to laugh out loud.
But she reels herself back in easily enough and softly speaks, "I am glad you are doing better already. We have been very worried about you."
She has taken the task up to herself to fill the mugs up with instant coffee powder with hot water. It reminds her enough of making tea that she feels responsible for its serving.
Swole appreciates the concern shown for him but he remains silent. His mind is preoccupied with thoughts of the future.
His first gym battle, to be specific.
He knows that he should still have enough time to get a 3rd member and train all of his pokemon up, before he reaches Canalave City to schedule a battle.
However, he also knows that he is far too picky with the pokemon he catches.
More than once, the thought to simply catch a random pokemon to toss away later crossed his mind. But every time he sees a random pokemon, the thought is nowhere even close to the forefront of his mind.
And every time the thought does come to the forefront of his mind, he is disgusted with himself.
In the end, no rational thinking can overcome the heart and intuition of a pokemon trainer.
Thus, his mind is currently focused on the training regiment of Salandit. He thinks of which moves to train from Salandit's considerable move-pool as his hand strokes down her back.
'Probably Fake Out.' His first idea for Salandit's future is to make something similar to Quilava's build: To use Poison Gas and Will-O-Wisp, and then to simply run away.
'If I could surprise Byron with Poison Gas, then I could follow up with Fake Out and Will-O-Wisp and I would have the first win in my pocket already... Well, not Byron himself. I don't think he will fight personally against a badge-less nobody. It will probably be a trainee of his.'
The limitations of Fake Out are as great as its boon: It takes a long time before a pokemon can use the move again. Effectively, it can just be used once per battle.
'The move must be used to the greatest effect possible.'
"Yaawn. Good morning." Dawn interrupts his thoughts as she crawls out of her tent. Her hair is in perfect condition after Prinplup took care of it.
"Morning. You slept well?"
"Mhm. But I'm looking forward to sleeping in a hotel again... Oh! Akari, did you make coffee already? You're such a treasure!"
Dawn seats herself close to Swole before releasing Mawile from her pokeball and sipping on her milky coffee.
"You kept Mawile in her ball?" Swole asks with a hint of worry.
"Oh yeah." Dawn looks up from her coffee and points her finger at the very sleepy fairy. "She bit me in her sleep."
As if to accentuate her argument, Mawile's second jaw tries to snap around Dawn's finger. Missing just barely because Dawn managed to pull her hand back fast enough.
"See that!? She's a menace!"
Mawile turns around to face her trainer. She is still rubbing the sleep-sand out of her eyes but tears are already forming in the corners of her eyes.
"Awww. Who's a cute little menace. Come here!"
Buneary, the other cute little menace, decided to simply ignore Dawn in favor of her continued morning-petting session.
Mawile sluggishly waddles into Dawn's embrace and her fake tears stopped immediately.
The hug lasted until Dawn had to swat away Mawile's horn.
"So." Swole starts after a short lull in conversation. "What do you girls want for breakfast?"
Dawn looks at the burnt out fireplace. "I don't feel like cooking..."
"You mean you don't feel like burning stuff again?"
"Hey! You try cooking with an open flame. It's hard!"
"I'm a guy. We can naturally do that. No problem."
"Ha. Ha. Very funny."
"Dawn." Akari says while sipping her own cup of coffee, daintily. "I think he might be on to something. It was always all the men in the village who cooked after they brought in a big hunt."
"Bull. Shit."
"Anyway, I still have these weird fruits. We could snack on them instead of cooking something. Or we could ask Ash and their group what they are having."
"Yeah. Let's just check in on them. I don't want them to drive off without us either. Even if the truck is a little cramped." After saying that, Dawn knocks back the rest of her coffee, slaps both of her thighs at once and gets up. "So. Let's get going."
---
Swole-POV:
...
"I can't believe they drove off without us." Dawn's eyes are wide in shocked disbelief.
Their whole camp is gone, not a trace left behind. But worst of all: The truck is missing.
Our free ride is gone.
A wilted Time Flower stares at me in disappointment. Metaphorically. It's reflecting the disappointment I feel right now.
"I can." My opinion on Ash has just dropped immensely, once again. "That bastard."
This is the drop that spills the bucket.
Next time I see him, I'll kick his ass! In a pokemon fight.
"I do not believe it is as simple as that." Says Akari, while kneeling closer to the ground and inspecting something. "You can clearly see the tracks of the car. It came from there, stopped here and then nothing."
I get closer to look for myself. As much as I trust Akari's words, I also trust Ash to be a twat.
But Akari is right. Or at least appears to be...
On a closer inspection, it appears as if they have simply vanished. There is no way that heavy off-road jeep could drive off without leaving any tracks.
And actually, come to think of it, we should have heard them if they left. We camped just a stone's throw away.
This can just mean 1 thing.
"They traveled back through time."
... Yep. Crazy, how this is the most reasonable explanation. This, or teleportation. But since they already time traveled once, it's probably time travel.
"What do you think caused that?" Dawn asks after inching a little closer as well.
As if 3 people inspecting the same tire-tracks will help us in any way.
"No clue. Probably the same sh-- stuff that brought them here in the first place. Arceus knows?"
No matter what brought him here, he's staying on top of my shit-list though. Even if half my reasons are out of his control, I'm still gonna kick his ass! In a pokemon fight.
"What now?" I get back up and make doubly sure that Lucario's egg sits snugly in its sling.
Akari was nice enough to craft one for me.
It wraps around my hip and my shoulder and the egg is fitted nicely against my stomach.
"I guess we get going..." Dawn responds in a defeated tone. "Awe maaan. I don't wanna walk all the way to Canalave City."
"Perhaps we could finish our breakfast before we head out for the day." Akari suggests.
"Orrr-- Yawn." Dawn stretches her arms out over her head. "We could enjoy the hot-spring one more time?"
Akari taps her chin as she thinks on that. "We could make it to the edge of this valley today. But if we need to climb out and waste too much time now, it could mean that we must camp in here for one more night."
"I don't think we will need to climb." I point out. "Kidd got in here in a car. There must be an easy track through the mountains."
"Then we got no arguments against some more relaxing?" Dawn asks, causing Akari and I to shake our heads after putting a bit more thought into it. "Great! Then let's go swimming!"
'Let's go swimming' She said. "Are you actually going to swim this time? Or do you just want to relax in the sun again."
Dawn answers while we are all walking back to our tents. "Tsk. This time, the water is warm. You gotta keep up Swole." She underlines that by sticking her tongue out at me.
After showing Dawn who's boss, by sticking my own tongue out back, we all get into our tents to get into our bathing suits.
Salandit tried sneaking into the tent when I first got in but Buneary kept an eye out for her after giving Salandit a moderately firm talking to; By which I mean she punched her away.
I still felt like I was being watched the whole time.
I get back out of the tent and wait for the girls to finish.
Dawn's silhouette is visible. She planted her tent into a really nice spot. It's getting light from both sides right now and I can almost make out every detail, besides color.
~"Go take a look."
The devil on my shoulder tells me to sneak a peek at Dawn. She has just finished removing her skirt.
~"Do it."
I should do it. Just... to check what's taking so long. I could call out 'knock knock' beforehand to get away with it.
My hand moves closer to the zipper on her tent-flap.
"Salandit."
Salandit?
"Hey, what are you doing on my shoulder, whispering weird stuff in my ear?"
"Hishishis." She just laughs as she scurries off and runs back to my tent. Probably to eat another egg.
My eyes follow Salandit for a while. I will need to collect her later. I bet she would enjoy a hot-spring.
I still remember how she complained about water, when we waded up the river. She said she hates water because it is cold.
Maybe she never felt hot water before?
"Swole? Is that you out there?" Dawn's voice interrupts me and pulls my gaze back to her tent.
The silhouette shows her trying to cover her breasts with her arms. If that tent wall wasn't in the way, I would have such a nice view right now.
"Yeees? It's me. Why?"
I could focus on my memories of Akari's bare breasts? Then it would be just like watching her ... No. It doesn't work. It's just not the same as experiencing it live.
"Don't be a peeping Tom."
"I-- What? I would never! The thought didn't even cross my mind. What are you talking about!"
"Uh huh. Yeah. Sure." Her voice comes out in a bored tone as she emerges from the tent like a butterfly from her cocoon.
Her sexy blue bikini with an ornamental, transparent skirt. Arceus, how I love that thing.
Her piercing blue eyes are staring angrily back at me while my gaze wanders up and down her body and while a crimson blush appears on her face.
Her muscles have gotten more pronounced since the last time... And did she grow again?
Eventually, she must have glared at me enough and decides to speak up again. "A-- anyway, hey Akari! What's taking so long?"
Akari's silhouette isn't visible through the tent-walls. Sadly.
"Dawn? Is that you? Can you come inside?" Ha! Phrasing! "I'm not so certain about this anymore. It is just straps. I'm almost naked in this... swimwear."
'Just straps'? Sounds amazing! But knowing Akari, she might be exaggerating again. It's probably a fairly tame getup.
"Just come out. There's just me and Swole around to see you. The nearest human would be dozens of kilometers away."
"Dawn's right. We won't judge you. You could run around naked and we wouldn't think worse about you."
Dawn punches me. "We're not running around naked for you. Pervert. Akari, your bikini isn't as bad as you're thinking right now."
...
"Alright. But please do not make any suggestive remarks."
The zipper on her tent goes down and-- Woah!
And-- Wowie!
And holy Arceus, her bikini is amazing!
It takes everything for me to keep my eyes from popping out of my skull. To keep all my neurons from activating at once.
It's very dark blue, technically a 1-piece swimsuit. Her bottom half and top half are connected with white straps that criss-cross over her body. The cups and her bottom-piece are dark blue, almost black.
Her body is very toned and muscular. It looks like the only fat she has is around her boobies and her thighs. And speaking of her thighs, she has a thigh-gap.
"--" I stop myself from making a suggestive remark.
And I make doubly sure not to mumble out how hot she is.
But my silence appears to be deafening, because Akari is turning red like a Tamato Berry and her dark blue eyes are trying to look anywhere but at us.
"C-c-c-can you l-look away... Please?"
Oh. My. Arceus. Her stutter is so cute!
After branding the image into my mind once again, I turn around and close my eyes, in order to look at them with my aura-sight instead!
... Which isn't too good yet. Their blobs don't look attractive and feeling the embarrassment from Akari makes my own face blush.
Suddenly, my thoughts drift to the embarrassing piece of clothing I'm wearing. That sexy Lopunny-themed swimwear... I can't believe I bought that.
I reopen my eyes and shut my aura-sense off before my thoughts drift any further into madness.
"Race you to the water!" Dawn suddenly shouts out and starts running. "Last one in the water puts away the camp later!"
I take one more look at Akari who seems to have gotten a little used to her bikini now. She starts running as well and I start last.
Needless to say, Dawn is not excited about having camp-cleanup duty later.
"I even slowed down to look at your ass-- I mean, Dawn, you really need to start working out more. You had such a large lead on us."
"Awe. Huff. I know. Huff."
She knows that she needs to work out? Or that I stared at her ass?
"Both."
"Haha. Woups..."
"D-Dawn. A-after dressing like this, w-we have no right to complain about where Swole's eyes land." Akari says while trying to hide her body in the water.
It doesn't help her at all because of how clean and clear the water is. Her face is a deep red and it's not the hot water's fault.
I take a look around while Dawn argues with Akari over men's responsibility not to stare or whatever.
The hot spring is very large and a gang of Mankey chills out on the other side of it. We are far enough away that they seem to be fine with our presence but Buneary still keeps an eye on them just in case.
I can see her at the edge of the water. Her feet are dangling into the hot water but she appears a little tense despite it.
Salandit sits a little further behind Buneary and they seem to be talking about something right now.
Another look towards the other pokemon makes it clear... that my pokemon are weird.
Zorua, Mawile, Quilava and even Prinplup are playing with each other in the water. Just splashing around water and having fun.
Meanwhile, Dawn, Akari and I are also just talking and relaxing in the water. Swimming was so much more fun when we were just children.
Is this what growing up means? Not having fun anymore?
It sucks.
... I splash a handful of water at Dawn.
She tried keeping her hair dry, so I know it's gonna piss her off.
"What the fuck, Swole."
"Hehe."
"Stop running and get back here!"
"I'm not running. I'm swimming!"
"You wise-ass-- Hey! What? Akari?"
"Hahaha."
Dawn sputters out a mouthful of water after Akari sneakily gets her.
"Not you too, Akari! Hey Buneary! Go and splash your trainer again!"
But Buneary simply takes one look at our antics and then just turns away to continue talking with Salandit.
She doesn't see me slowly swimming towards her.
And she doesn't see me pull both of my arms back either.
But Salandit does. And in response her eyes widen in shock.
The moment my arms swoosh forward to grab and splash as much water as I can, she scurries away and leaves Buneary alone in the splash zone.
Buneary turns around. Her fur is drenched in water and her face is plastered in fury and madness, as she stares into my shit-eating grin.
"Why don't you come with me in the water? It's nice and warm." My voice doesn't reach through her anger.
She stands up and... and charges a Jump Kick.
"Woups." I start swimming for my life.
---
Narrator-POV:
And thus the fun has begun.
For the next hour the humans and pokemon battle each other on the watery field of war. Humans chasing pokemon, pokemon chasing humans and all of them swimming away from Buneary.
Salandit watched the fun from the sidelines, cheering whenever Swole dunks on Buneary but scurrying away whenever anyone got too close to her.
After a while, the humans were tuckered out and enough time had passed to make lunch. They settled on a light salad with feta cheese and olives together with some grilled vegetable and meat skewers.
Afterwards, the slow and steady march back into civilization began.
They found the right path through the mountains easily enough and left the Tree of Life behind.
Yet their thoughts were stuck in chaos and disarray.
They were thinking of the friends they left behind.
But also of the things to come.
What happened to the world while they were stuck in an adventure? Just how much death and destruction had the recent event left in its wake?
After another full day of walking, they reached the edge of the event; Or the 'Space Time Convergence', as the rest of the world has coined the fateful day where lands shifted, people disappeared and time made no sense for a single moment.
The edge of the convergence point around the former Tree of Beginning is very obvious. It appears as if the ground was carved away with a razor-sharp knife.
The higher part of the edge is the soil and rocks from the Kanto region. The lower elevation part was a farming and fishing village of route 218.
'Was' is the word with emphasis in that statement.
Our group of heroes arrived at this intersection and they are witness to the destruction that the sudden displacement of so much space has brought upon the Sinnoh region.
Buildings have been blown away and they have been smashed into pieces as if built from Lego bricks by the sheer air pressure and the displaced water of the gulf of Canalave has swept over the land like a tsunami.
Not a single wall remained in its place.
Most people were glad over the fact that death is hard to achieve in this new world. Their houses and livelihoods were destroyed but at the very least, they survived and can rebuild later.
But some people rue that fact.
They had been buried alive under debris and mud and slowly but surely suffocated to death while their broken bodies have tried to claw their way to the surface.
The total, global death-toll of the Space Time Convergence is estimated to be in the tens of thousands.
A noticeable percentage of the human population has died that day.
And the population that managed to survive at the edges of the convergence points has become destitute and afraid. They fled to the nearest cities as refugees.
Swole, Akari and Dawn look on in solemn silence as they travel through the destroyed and empty countryside.
Not a single human soul in sight for as far as the eye can see. Only a few bodies, hidden beneath tonnes of rocks and muck.
The depression hits the group heavily. And they are forced to take a break to let the situation settle.
Dawn and Swole use the time to make a small burial for Lucas. Nothing but a wooden cross, placed on top of a stack of rocks.
Akari has her own past to bury and she silently sheds tears over a long row of graves. One for each of her friends.
But eventually, they must continue their travels.
The countryside was once littered with villages along the route. They served as farming hubs as well as a deterrent against the wild pokemon of the wilderness; Their roles would be to report and take care of any pokemon that would attack humans for food.
But now, toppled houses made of solid bricks are strewn all over the place and wild pokemon have begun to use them as hideouts.
Some, even daring enough to attack our group of travelers. But with the combined security force of Buneary, Salandit, Mawile, Prinplup, Quilava and even Zorua, the wild pokemon had not been an issue at all.
The sights of damage and destruction continue to follow our group of heroes during their travels.
It is worse than a war-zone.
Not only is everything destroyed, but everywhere one looks, all that can be seen is covered in a sheet of mud. The results of the water that swept over everything.
Around 20 kilometers away from the edge of Canalave City, they find the first human.
A girl with a Growlithe.
Her clothes are tattered and dirty and her Growlithe sniffs the air to find valuables and more importantly food in the wreckage of a house.
But once again they have no luck. The ruined building has already been looted by other refugees on their way to Canalave City and by wild pokemon looking for easy snacks.
However, Growlithe does manage to smell the approaching heroes and warns his trainer accordingly.
As Swole and the gang walk along the road, all of a sudden, the girl jumps in their way.
"H-Hey you!" She shouts out with as much bravery as she can muster.
The faded green of her t-shirt and the denim pants are inspected with worry by Swole. "I ch-challenge you to a f-fight! Loser has to drop their food!"
---
Swole-POV:
"H-Hey you!" The girl shouts out. Her voice trembles a lot, as if it takes her everything to appear threatening.
She looks to be around our age. Maybe a little bit younger. 12 or 13 maybe? Her clothes look like they have been through hell and her face is covered in grime.
Is she a survivor of the... catastrophe that happened? Where are all the other people?
Her jeans have a large hole in them but I doubt it's a fashion statement.
Her hair is black, her eyes are a piercing blue and her general build seems closer to Dawn's, when we had first ventured out of Twinleaf Town.
"I ch-challenge you to a f-fight! Loser has to drop their food!"
What the hell?
She is a trainer?
Probably not. Her Growlithe wears a collar with a name-tag on it.
It's not uncommon to fight for money in pokemon battles.
On our way away from Jubilife City, a few young trainers challenged us for some chump-change too, but this girl... is asking for food?
Actually, she looks a little starved too, does she even have the food to pay for the loss?
Why doesn't she just ask for food? Fear?
Pride? ... I can understand that.
"I accept. Bun--" I stop myself.
Buneary was my instinctive choice. But I have a second pokemon now. And a third pokemon soon. I can't just push everything on her.
But Salandit fights with poison and fire... I don't think the girl can afford treatment for her Growlithe, which means fighting with Salandit would cost me around 15₽ of berries, in addition to the general treatment I will give her pokemon.
My gaze finally settles back on Buneary. I'm choosing her; Not because I don't consider Salandit, but because she is the right choice for this fight.
"Buneary, let's go."
She gets ready in front of me and the girl's Growlithe gets ready to fight around 10 meters ahead of us.
Dawn gets ready to act as the referee after giving the girl another glance, as if silently asking if she's sure about this. "Are you both ready?"
The girl looks a little less sure after seeing Buneary's confidence but she still responds in an affirmative.
Everyone is ready. "I'm ready." I respond.
"Go!" - "Growlithe... use Ember!"
Battlefield is in good condition. "Buneary, dodge and use Charm."
The ember comes flying but Buneary has enough time to show off by stepping through the move and avoiding all damage while taking her time to use Charm.
"Growlithe, use Take Down instead."
Buneary finished Charm before Growlithe could start running to use Take Down and the pink energy seeps into him, weakening him in the process.
"Counter with Jump Kick."
"Jump Kick?! What the? Get out of there, Growlithe!"
But Growlithe is already too close and too untrained to abort the move before it was too late.
By the time the pokemon managed to stop his momentum, Buneary's Jump Kick was already fully charged and she had all the time in the world to aim for poor Growlithe's face.
Boom! Critical Hit!
Growlithe is smashed to the other side of the makeshift arena, out of range of Buneary's follow-up Double Kick.
He struggles back up.
I'm surprised that he can keep going after a hit like that.
"Continue with Fling."
"Hey, are you alright Growlithe? Can you use Growl?"
Growlithe seems visibly angered about being unable to hit Buneary at all.
Woof!
Growl hits but Buneary picks up a random brick from the ground and prepares to throw it anyways.
She takes aim and throws the brick across the battlefield, hitting Growlithe right in the face.
Critical Hit!
"Growlithe!" The pokemon calls out and rubs his snout in pain.
"Keep up the pressure and use another Jump Kick!"
Growlithe is still dazed and has nowhere to run. Buneary runs back into melee range while she charges up a good Jump Kick and then she jumps feet first into his face once more.
Critical Hit. And the very next moment, Growlithe's eyes turn into swirls.
"Growlithe is KO! Buneary wins the fight!" Dawn's voice ends the battle.
The girl immediately runs for her pokemon and cradles the knocked out pokemon in her arms, tears already forming in her eyes.
... Now, it's time to act and to be a hero.
"Buneary, did you have to overdo it again?" I ask loud enough, so that the girl can definitely hear it, even past her sobbing.
"Bu-- Buneary?"
I'm so sorry Buneary! I hate to throw you under the bus like that!
I approach the girl and pick up Buneary on my way. Buneary seems confused about the turn of events but I ignore her for now and just subtly pet her.
I get closer and lay my hand on the girl's shoulder. "Awe man. Look, I'm really sorry about that! We really went too far in the fight. You don't need to pay me the reward mo-- food."
She looks up in shock at me, as if just now remembering that she had gambled.
"In fact, I'll give you some potion for the treatment of your Growlithe, alright? And we were going to cook something soon anyway, you can have something as well." I hold out the emergency potion I keep in my cargo pants pocket and she carefully grabs it.
"Sniff. I-- But-- You--... Sniff... Thank you. Thank you so much!"
"Hey. It's alright." Dawn gets closer and puts her hand on her other shoulder. "What's your name?"
"Sniff. M-Marley. It's-- sniff, nice to meet you."
"What's wrong?" Dawn goes in to hug the girl and pushes me away slightly.
I understand her intent. The girl-- Marley is afraid and alone. And I, as a strange man, shouldn't be touching her unnecessarily.
I could make it worse. Like when I first met Lucario.
"I-- I don't even know! All of a sudden everything turned into chaos and I was buried under our house... I shouted for help for so long but nobody heard me... I don't know how long it took until Growlithe finally came and dug me out. He is-- He was my family's pet... Sniff."
'Was'... Oh man.
Thicker tears well up in Marley's eyes. "They-- M-mom and dad... d-died... Sniff." Heavy sobs fill the air as she hugs Dawn as tightly as she can.
"I don't know what I'm doing! Everything is gone! My house! My parents! I don't know what happened to my friends!"
Oh Arceus...
She's hanging on to Dawn as if her life depends on it and Dawn starts tearing up as well.
I quickly wipe a tear of my own away.
This is all a whole lot worse than I thought. Where is the League? Why aren't they taking care of their citizens?
I-- I need to distract myself.
I get my phone out to check for a signal once again. But GPS is still the only service that is working.
Dawn continues to console Marley and Akari prepares some snacks nearby for the girl.
"Hey, Marley." After a while, she has started to calm back down in Dawn's embrace and I ask her. "We're heading to Canalave City, do you want to come with us?"
Her eyes widen.
"Arceus, thank you! Yes, please! I tried going there but there are so many vile pokemon in the way now. I-- Growlithe isn't a battle pokemon. We couldn't fight through that."
'Vile'?
"And I tried looking for food with Growlithe. I heard once that they can easily find stuff... but... we couldn't find anything. I had no idea what to do! Sniff."
She starts crying again but gladly accepts the sandwich that Akari holds out for her.
"Moan That sandwich is so good! ... Uhm, by the way, who... Who are you people?"
"Oh, right! We haven't introduced ourselves yet. I'm Dawn, from Twinleaf Town."
"And my name is Akari. A pleasure to make your acquaintance."
"And I'm Swole. Nice to meet you."
She eyes me up and down then shyly replies, "... You have some muscles ... but I wouldn't call it swole just yet."
Akari snickers and Dawn laughs out loud. It's one of her go-to jokes.
"... Ha. Ha. I never heard that one before. Must have been a few dawns ago, when I heard it last."
"Urgh! Alright, alright! I get it! Haha. I'll stop laughing. Ha. Now."
Marley looks relieved after seeing us continue her joke. "Hahaha!"
Warmth fills my heart after seeing Marley cheer up. Doing good deeds really is nice.
Speaking of nice things, "Hey, let's start making lunch." And I kinda owe Buneary a favor after throwing her under the bus like I did. "How about steak?"
Marley starts drooling immediately and a freshly forming wet spot on my shoulder tells me that Buneary drools as well.
---
'Oh Swole, you can cook steak so good! Will you do it again?'
... I can't believe that worked on me.
I swallowed that crap up: Hook, line and sinker.
The girls were all talking about girl-stuff the whole time that I made steak for 4 people and 7 pokemon.
It was so much work but at least I managed to push off the potato peeling job to them.
It's no wonder mom stopped putting in a lot of effort into cooking every day at some point. 1 perfect steak is easy and not an issue. But 10 of them? Daily? Arceus damn. And dad and I didn't show much appreciation for her work either...
But in the end my steaks were actually really good. So the crap they baited me with is at least true.
Marley ate hers as if it was the first decent meal she had in days, which is probably true. And the smell of it even managed to awaken Growlithe from his KOed state.
When the girls had distracted each other, I made sure to explain to Buneary that she didn't actually do anything wrong in her battle. That I simply told a lie in order to preserve Marley's dignity at least a little.
Her slow and unsteady nod of confirmation tells me that she clearly didn't understand my motivations. But Salandit distracted her afterwards, so it's alright.
... Sheesh. It must have been so rough for Marley. To lose your friends, family and home in the blink of an eye. To be stuck underground for who knows how long.
I'm just glad she didn't suffocate too.
How many people died like that? Did the people on the ferry suffocate? Maybe they can be saved somehow by Team Galactic, but it's probably just wishful thinking... Pure cope...
Does Arceus actually exist?
I always thought he was supposed to look out for us.
But the world has become such a cruel place. So much injustice. So much pain--
"Swole," Dawn interrupts my train of thought. "Can you... keep your depressing thoughts to yourself?"
A tear flows down her face. "Oh. I'm sorry Dawn. I didn't mean to mutter."
I must have ruined everyone's meal with my emo shit.
"... What do you mean?" Marley asks. "You weren't muttering... I was closest to you... and I didn't hear a thing."
... Huh? Wait, what?
"Yes he was. I heard it."
"I have heard it as well." Akari confirms with a forlorn look on her face.
But Marley remains adamant about it.
I take another fork full of steak and eat it slowly.
The girls have started arguing about whether I really mutter or not.
Marley and Dawn seem to get quite a lot into the argument.
Why would they even want to argue about something like that?
And now they are laughing over a joke I missed. "What?"
"See?" Dawn says and starts laughing out loud. Marley just chuckles a little.
Weirdos. I guess they became friends quickly.
Anyway, back to what matters: My mutters.
I've got to stop with them. At this point, it's actually annoying to deal with that.
Is it like some kind of result from repressing my trauma?
... I hope not. I'm not going to get that can of worms closed any time soon.
Time heals all wounds and stuff. I'm just gonna let it take care of itself.
What else could it be though?--
Wait. Akari and Dawn notice it. But Marley doesn't. "Buneary, do I ever mutter?"
The bunny in question pauses her dignified eating and tries to think back carefully, with her paw at her chin in a thinking pose.
Salandit rolls her eyes for some reason. "Sa-sal." She mutters.
~"No." Buneary eventually replies before giving Salandit a warning glare.
... "No?"
She nods her head in confirmation. "Bun. Buneary."
"I didn't get that. Can you repeat it?" I focus on my aura to try and hear her pokemon speech better.
~"I said, you don't mutter. But sometimes you speak like a pokemon."
... "What?-- No, sorry, I understood you, but are you sure?"
~"Yes."
What does that mean? I--
'Another application of aura. It is similar to telepathy. Only more natural.' Lucario's words shoot back into my mind.
I focus on my aura sense again. This time to try and see the aura around me.
I get a feeling for Buneary, Dawn, Akari and even Salandit easily but it's a little harder to make out the shapes of Marley and the other pokemon.
And when I concentrate even more; I can feel the bond of a trainer and his pokemon between me and Buneary. And a much weaker bond between me and Salandit.
And a bond between Dawn and Akari and me. It feels warm and fuzzy. Is this what friendship is? Is friendship actually a perceptible thing?
I focus on the one connecting me and Dawn. 'Hey Dawn?' I think and make sure not to say anything out loud.
Nothing.
I try a few more times and my aura feels like it's trying to do something but nothing gets through.
Hum. Well, maybe I'm wrong with my idea. Maybe I'm just a mumbling mess.
Dawn takes another bite. "Hey Dawn?" I say out loud.
"Hum? Yea?-- Oh, sorry. One moment." She startles a little when she realizes that she started talking with her mouth full.
"Nothing. Just wanted to annoy you."
Her eyes glare at me in annoyance before she leans over to punch my shoulder as hard as she can.
Which isn't very hard.
"Ouch. Why are you so hard?"
"Because I'm swole."
"Snort. Shut up."
Anyway, turns out, maybe, I wasn't muttering. And I'm not as insane as I thought I was, probably.
I might actually have a fucking superpower! Brilliant! Bloody brilliant even, as they say in Galar.
I just need to start making sure not to... speak like a pokemon on accident, I guess. Probably happens on its own once I get more competent in aura usage.
Alright! That's so sick! I'm so gonna meditate later today!
... Urgh... That still sounds lame. I need to think of some better name for it.
Like channeling my aura.
Or cultivating? Nah. It all sounds stupid. I think I just have to accept that training aura is kinda cringe but the results are gonna be worth it.
Talking with pokemon, a little boost in physical strength, pranking Dawn--
Holy shit! Pranking Dawn! If that works I will need to keep this a secret for now!
It's going to be so fucking funny.
But I will need to get Akari and Dawn to train their aura as well. I don't want to keep this just to myself, especially if it means that they will be a little safer from physical harm... These are dangerous times after all.
And maybe I can also convince Dawn to do some yoga or something like that? It would be good for her health and nice for me.
"Hey uhm..." While I'm thinking and eating the last bits of my steak, I notice Marley trying to start a new conversation and her nervousness catches my attention.
"I wanted to ask, if you all don't mind of course, if we could... Go to my... uhm, camp. Before we go to Canalave City."
---
Marley's camp happens to be close by. It was just one village away.
She managed to find a spot without a lot of wild pokemon around.
Sadly, wild pokemon and humans happen to have the same preferences for shelter.
And the wild pokemon didn't bother Marley in her camp because the village was hit really hard by the catastrophe.
From the looks of it, the village used to have a fairly large lake in the middle, but the flood, or rather tsunami, has swept over the buildings. It damaged most and submerged the rest.
The lake has swelled up immensely and is now filled with saltwater. It will take quite some time for nature to recover here.
Her camp is inside a building which has a flooded ground floor and a damaged roof.
Needless to say, it's the nicest place around and Marley should be proud of her ability to survive in this hellhole.
She seems like a regular person to me; Like Dawn, but with less knowledge over pokemon.
But I don't think Dawn could have managed so well on her own in this situation.
"... Well... welcome to my current home."
We had waded through the ground floor and walked up the stairs into the former bedroom of a small girl.
There is dirty pink wallpaper, a child-sized bed and an adult sized mattress on the floor next to it. A few children's toys are neatly placed into a corner of the room and a shelf has been repurposed to store Marley's stuff.
Almost everything is stained in a thin coating of dried mud.
"I didn't plan to stay here... but the pokemon got too dangerous for me and I was hungry. I really hoped someone would come and rescue me ... And you did... Thank you."
Marley bows deeply to us before she starts gathering up her personal belongings. A few tattered family pictures, some rolls of duct tape, a worn out stuffed animal, a pair of wedding rings--
Oh... Oh Arceus...
Poor girl...
And a bit more stuff but I give her some privacy.
After she finished stashing everything away in a dirty and damaged backpack she turns back to us and bows once more. "I-I don't know how I could ever repay you all... Thank you so much!"
"Don't worry about it. We're just doing what anyone would be doing."
"But no one did... I screamed and shouted for help for so long but no one came. It was terrible... I was so scared and then when Growlithe found me, everyone else had already left. N-nobody cared about the people stuck under houses. Nobody cared about the b-b-bodies... Everyone had just taken what they could carry and left! ... I'm so glad that you found me. Sniff."
The poor girl. I feel so sorry for her.
I don't know what to say and Dawn and Akari seem equally at a loss as Marley quietly sobs to herself.
So I do the only thing I can think of.
I go in and hug her.
We barely know each other but she is unbothered by it and hugs me tightly.
"Shh. It's alright." I tell her, soothingly. "Let's just focus on the future. Everything will get better, alright?"
She doesn't respond and just quietly sniffles for some more time.
She smells pretty bad. And she is covered in a slight coating of grime... But that doesn't bother me.
It's one of the sacrifices I need to make, for the world to become a slightly better place again.
I stroke her head a little, despite the slight amount of grease that she leaves on my hand.
I can't blame her. Everything around here is dirty. The waters are muddy and I doubt many towels have managed to survive the... local apocalypse in a clean state.
At least I hope it's just a local apocalypse. There weren't too many changes on the Sinnoh map, on my phone. And GPS still works.
I can only hope that route 218 is the only place in Sinnoh that got hit by this event.
"There, there." I continue petting her while she cries.
And I can only hope that things are at least a little better in Canalave City...
Or else Akari will need to teach us some more survival skills.