* * *
Hastur was a failure.
Three days ago, they had failed to foresee Pepper’s fight, and they had failed to understand what the fleshlings in the kitchen wanted of them, and that had almost ruined everything. The day after that they had tried to save their friend’s friend and please the Zangoose all at once but had ultimately only managed to not break any dishes and enrage their friend’s friend’s friend, and now he hated them. Then yesterday, they had made some progress successfully restocking shelves and finding gifts for Mary and her not-friend, but in their carelessness, they had nearly killed everyone in the bar when they had let the Absol trip over them.
They were incompetent. They needed to do more.
The early hours of the fourth day saw Hastur wandering the outside of Café Plaisir. He had cut his meditation session off early this evening as soon as he had established no physical harm would come to his clique; excluding the usual unlikelihoods and discomforts he would normally try to root out and crush before they could inconvenience his friends. Little things, like weather forecasts, losing items and the like: issues that were disruptive, but not dangerous. Though the break in routine made him uncomfortable and put his friends at risk of having a suboptimal day, it was necessary. He needed time to seek out the materials.
Copper irrigation pipes left over from the reconstruction of the garden. Intellectus said they would sit in a gardening shed for four years before being thrown away. At least until Hastur took them in hand and destroyed that future.
Caster wheels from a spare trolly. These would have seen use in the next month, but Hastur altered the course of causality by taking them. They wouldn’t know if they could return them in time, so Hastur shoved the trolly back into the darkest corner of the supply room and made a note to return the wheels before the day Intellectus had said the cart would have been used had he not taken the wheels. There was no way to tell if that was enough, what with Intellectus being caught in a feedback loop thanks to his interference with causality, so Hastur moved on and hoped for the best.
Bedsheets thrown away after a dominating customer of Plaisir had left tears in them during intercourse. No fleshlings would miss this! They never missed things in garbage bins. Hastur took them immediately.
They would create a gift. Fleshlings loved gifts. They would give the gift to Cinnamon’s friend and that would make them happy and hate Hastur less. And they would tell him they were sorry for being a failure, and maybe then the Arcanine might forgive them, or at least not hate them.
Hastur hated being hated. Hastur hated being a failure.
Hastur slipped a claw out from beneath their costume and split and posed two of the fingers into a long, narrow crescent. Lightning, courtesy of a thunderbolt, arced between the fingers, generating enough power to melt metals. It was their best approximation of a fleshling’s arc welder and it had served him well for years. Using the light of his makeshift tool, Hastur carefully began laying out the irrigation pipes on the asphalt behind the dumpster.
Hastur was a failure. But he wasn’t a quitter.
* * *
“Nooooooooo!”
“Skitter-”
“Whyyyyyy?!” The little skitty wailed with tears in her eyes. Around her, over a dozen waiters and Janitors looked on with ears pinned and covered, all trying to find a way to console their coworker without getting tinnitus.
“Skitter I-“
“I go home for three days and you replace meee?”
Pouncer couldn’t seem to decide if his hands belonged over his face or his eardrums. “Ski-“
“I’m sooorry! I don’t know what I did if I wasn’t finding enough litter or too much litter but please oh please let me get litter I just wanna collect litteeer!”
“No, Skitter-Skitter! Listen to me!” Mr. Pouncer picked the Skitty up by the shoulders and shook her repeatedly to get her attention. “You are not! Being! Replaced!”
“How could you do this to-oh. Really?!”
“Yes. Really. You’ll be taking care of the litter, and Cinnamon and Sugar will be pulling the reel mower before coming inside to assist with mopping. Nobody’s taking your job!”
“...Oh. Okay!” The Skitty dropped to the floor, suddenly cheerful as a child.
Mr. Pouncer sighed and rubbed his temples for a moment before continuing, “This’ll let us forgo hiring a dedicated Landscape crew every week to deal with the outer yards, assuming Pepper is willing to lend a vine.” A couple pairs of eyes drifted towards the Chikorita, who lay sprawled on the floor in her usual awkward manner. She gave the Grovyle a curt nod in response, making a point to ignore everyone else.
“Those of you working outside, we’ve got security on the roof keeping watch. Try to stay in their field of view at all times. We also got the psychics monitoring everyone’s minds just in case.”
‘Wait, really?’ Cinnamon thought.
‘Yes, really!’ Answered a thought that wasn’t his own.
“Gaah!” Cinnamon shouted in surprise and briefly reeled backwards, nearly flinging a power-napping Sugar off his back in the process. The rest of the morning shift stifled a giggle. They’d all felt the intrusion of a psychic at least once before; it was unpleasant even at the best of times.
Mr. Pouncer cleared his throat to get everyone’s attention. “Right. Any other concerns before we get started?”
There was a brief pause. Then Demure, one of the cleaning team’s Unfezants, rose a wing, “How long are these security measures supposed to last?”
“Until we either find Eclipse or we can confirm he’s been arrested or captured.” Mr. Pouncer replied, succinctly. “Anything else? No? Good!”
As the morning shift dispersed, Cinnamon maneuvered towards the smell of Skitty.
“Hey, uh, are you alright?”
“Hmm? What do-eep!” Skitter leaped back at the sudden sight of Cinnamon’s face near her own.
Cinnamon jerked back, instinctively. “Sorry!”
Skitter took a moment to catch her breath before taking another look at Cinnamon’s eyes, or lack thereof. “Woah! Are you okay?”
“Yeah I’m okay, but are you?”
“Okay?”
“Yeah.”
“Yeah!”
“Okay!” Cinnamon visibly relaxed. “I didn’t mean to worry you, taking your job and all that.”
“It’s fiiiiine!” Skitter turned and started hopping down the hall. “C’mon, let’s go!”
Cinnamon turned to follow her, obediently.
“I’m gunna go grab the gear from the shed. Meet you out front!” Pepper called, before swinging away in the opposite direction.
Leaving just himself with Sugar snoring softly on his back. The hedonistic little emolga had worn himself out the previous night in Neon’s room doing Arceus-knew-what with the Jolteon, while Cinnamon had passed out on her bed, bored by the nonsensical contextless noises of her video games.
Cinnamon marched slowly, enjoying the familiar weight of his friend settled in the saddle; Cinnamon’s neck serving as an ad-hoc pillow. Sugar did so much for him, every day, almost all day, to the point where he wasn’t sure what he’d do without the flyer’s confident hands leading him about the reins. That he never asked for anything in return, save a little extra sleep in the mornings…
He needed to do something for Sugar. Find a gift or a surprise or something. Cinnamon resolved to figure something out with Neon sometime. Somehow. Could it even be a surprise? Codependence made keeping secrets such a chore!
The sound of flesh smacking fur interrupted Cinnamon’s train of thought. A moment later something heavy shoved him sideways and onto the carpet with a grunt. His first thought was maybe someone was in a hurry and he’d strayed into their path.
But then a door slammed, and a moment later there was the telltale *click* of a lock.
He smelled fish.
“Gotcha!” Came a triumphant, horribly familiar voice.
“Rain Flower?!” Cinnamon was on his feet in an instant, shuffling away from the voice.
“Damn right I am! Do you know how hard it’s been getting you alone?” The Vaporeon moved closer as she spoke, “We need to talk.”
‘Oh no!’
“Cinnamon?” A muffled voice accompanied by knocking filtered through the door. “Cinnamon are you alright? Who’s in there?”
“Sugar?!” Cinnamon swung in the direction of his friend’s voice, only to sense Rain Flower interposing herself between him and the door.
“You got some nerve, doing what you did the other day!” The Vaporeon started to advance, in a manner far too similar to their last encounter.
Quippie’s voice echoed in Cinnamon’s head. “Just hold your ground and tell her ‘No’”
“S-Stop!” Cinnamon half-yelled and charged a bolt into the floor. The telltale *crack* gave the Vaporeon pause. “…Please?”
There was a brief, tense standoff between the quadrupeds.
“…Fine.” Rain Flower muttered, and backed up a couple paces. “I wanted to talk about what happened the other day, in my room.”
“Okay…” Cinnamon said, warily. He crouched down on the floor, making himself as comfortable as possible while still being ready to spring for the exit if need be.
Suddenly, Rain Flower was shouting again, “So first of all, who the hell teaches a Linoone Thunderbolt anyways?!”
Cinnamon blinked. “Uh…My trainer wanted me to help her herd Mareep.” He explained, “They’re attracted to Electricity, and this way I don’t need to see to defend myself.”
Rain Flower grunted disinterestedly, “Whatever.” Then, “And what the hell, telling Firenze that I nearly raped you? I get it: Numb Nuts doesn’t want to get into trouble on his first day, but throwing me under the bus? What the fuck?”
Cinnamon twitched in surprise. “…Because…you did?”
Rain Flower blew a raspberry. “Impossible! That would mean I’m a rapist, and since I’m not a rapist I couldn’t have raped you which means you lied about me nearly raping you. So why did you lie?”
“…I didn’t?”
“Yes, you did! You went crazy and zapped me and ran off like a madman and then when you got caught you blamed me! That’s what happened!” A hint of desperation crept into her voice. “I mean you’re here, in Plaisir! So you must be looking for sex, right? Are you gay? Is that it?!”
“No-” Cinnamon squeaked.
“Then why didn’t you fuck me like a normal boy?!” The question echoed around the room, leaving the quivering Linoone to work his jaw in confusion. Rain Flower stood there, silently demanding a response.
“...Because I didn’t want to?” He finally managed to whisper.
“Nononono!” Rain Flower’s too-loud voice wavered as she shook her head. “That’s impossible. You’re working at Plaisir. Everyone comes to Plaisir for sex, except maybe a couple wierdo customers. How can you be here and not want sex?”
“I didn’t even know I was working at a brothel until after they hired me.” Cinnamon explained, carefully.
“That’s stupid shut up…” Rain Flower’s voice trailed off for a moment. “Besides you’re a guy! Boys always want sex, that’s how we girls keep you in line!”
“Huh?”
Rain Flower continued, increasing in confidence, “Clearly you just wanted to be on top! That’s why you attacked me, right?
Cinnamon cocked his head. “What are you talking about?”
He felt the Vaporeon start to circle him, spiraling closer as she spoke, “So I took the lead, right? And you didn’t want to sub, so you got all aggressive and attacked me, then ran off when you realized you took it too far!”
Cinnamon immediately started shaking his head, confused. But the Vaporeon wasn’t paying attention. She finished her final lap and turned so they were nose-to-nose. “So, I say we try this again! We’re going to have sex-”
‘What?!’
“-and this time you can be on top and have your fun and then you can tell Firenze how dumb you were when we’re done!” She finished. There was a thump and her voice suddenly came from below, “Alright?”
Cinnamon sat perfectly still, utterly flummoxed.
“…Well?”
Cinnamon found his voice. “…No! No, I don’t want to have sex with you. I never wanted to have sex with you! I just wanted to find my room!”
“...No.” Rain Flower said, disbelievingly.
“I was lost and disoriented and I trusted you to help me. A-and I didn’t…I wasn’t expecting…maybe this is normal for you but it wasn’t for me and it came out of nowhere and I don’t even think you ever asked before you started!” The words tumbled out of Cinnamon’s mouth as quickly as he could put them together.
“That’s not right.” The Vaporeon mumbled more to herself than to Cinnamon.
“And when I started asking you to wait or slow down you just kept coming and I panicked!” His words were met with silence. Behind the door, the muffled sounds of stomping and yelling indicated their meeting was about to end.
“No.” Rain Flower whispered. It was quiet bordering on imperceptible. “I wouldn’t rape anyone.” Her tone had changed; she was pleading with him now.
Cinnamon shook his head. “You almost did.”
Rain Flower shuffled around, further from the Linoone. “That’s not right.”
Cinnamon thought for a moment, caught between fear and sympathy. “You genuinely thought I wanted sex though, so…I guess it was just a misunderstanding?” He offered.
Rain Flower didn’t answer.
“I’m sorry I electrocuted you.”
“…”
“I’m sorry.” It was barely audible, but Cinnamon heard her well and clear.
But before he could respond, the door to the room jiggled, then slammed open. Pepper’s vines shot through the door with enough force to leave scour marks on the furniture they struck. Moments later, both Linoone and Vaporeon were dragged by their legs out into the hall, one more willingly than the other.
“Hey! What’s the big-Ack!” Rain Flower’s protests were quickly crushed between the coiling vines.
“What were you doing to him?” Pepper growled.
“Nothing? I-Ack!” Rain Flower started squirming to get free, only to find the whips tightening still-further around her torso, steadily crushing her.
“Cinnamon? Are you alright?” Pepper asked, rage giving way to concern. From the strained noises Rain Flower was making, the fate of her ribs was dependent on his response.
“I’m okay!” He assured her, “She just...wanted to talk, mostly.”
“Awful lot of shouting for a ‘talk’” Pepper replied suspiciously. “…And what do you mean ‘mostly’?”
“It’s fine!” Cinnamon insisted, “I promise. She didn’t even touch me this time.”
“Really?” Pepper sounded skeptical.
Cinnamon flipped upright, “Yes! I’m okay, see? I promise.”
Sugar made himself known to him: fussing over Cinnamon’s coat for scratches or bruises. “He looks alright to me!” He reported.
Pepper hummed for a moment. “I don’t kn-“
“What’s going on here? Why are you fighting? Do I need to call security!?” It was Pouncer, sounding equal parts worried and angry.
There was a long pause. Then Rain Flower spoke, her tone suddenly filled with false innocence, “Uh, Nothing! Nothing is going on here. Me and Pepper were just having a little chat, right Pepper?”
Pepper considered the lead-in for a moment, then said, “…No. Rain Flower assaulted Cinnamon and locked herself in a room with him, I thought she was trying to rape him so I was about to beat the tar out of her!”
Pouncer gasped, as did Rain Flower. The Vaporeon sputtered, “Pepper, what the fuck?”
“Lies and Secrets are for the guilty and regretful. I am neither.” The Chikorita explained, dropping Rain Flower to the floor with a *thump*. “So what are you going to do about it?” She asked Pouncer. It was more a challenge than an honest question.
Pouncer gawked silently at Pepper’s blunt admission for a moment before composing himself. “Cinnamon, is this all true?” He asked.
“Yes. She caught me and Sugar alone, and pushed me through the door and locked Sugar out, and I was worried she’d try to...but...she just wanted to talk.” Cinnamon steadily sagged to the floor as he spoke, suddenly exhausted.
“Rain Flower?”
“[sub]Stupid fuckin’ cripple potato-bitch[/sub] Yes sir. That’s what happened.”
Mr. Pouncer raised an eyebrow at “Sir” but didn’t comment. “Rain Flower, if you need a one-on-one, you should talk to me, or your shift supervisor, or HR. Behavior like this, at now of all times? Management’s on a hair trigger right now. You could get fired if this continues! Gods, you could get arrested! Please don’t make us call an intervention.”
“Yessir,” Rain Flower repeated, her tone uncharacteristically sober.
“Pepper...just...” Mr. Pouncer stumbled over his own words for a moment, “Just...if you can bind her, please don’t take it any further than that. Report to us and leave the punishment to HR."
“Yea, sure.” Pepper said skeptically. She turned and picked up her compatriots, Sugar squirming uncomfortably while Cinnamon relaxed into the vines. “C’mon guys, we got work to do.”
“Wait!” Cinnamon blurted out. Pepper paused to let his friend speak. “Rain Flower?”
“What?” Came the sour reply.
“Do you want to meet again?” He asked.
There was a tense moment as Rain Flower considered his words. “…No.” She decided, “I’m good.” And with that she turned and padded away.
* * *
Confidence, Fear, Anguish, Pity, Rage, and Hunger: psychic residue all orbiting a great black ball of tar. It was enough to make weaker psychics retch.
It had rained the previous night. Nothing more than a drizzle, and one that heralded more rains tomorrow, but it was enough to wipe away most of the scents from the area. More relevantly to Omen, it was a drizzle shi hadn’t foreseen. A great gale had come out of nowhere in the dead of night and broken the oncoming storm clean in two; the first front passing in the early hours of dawn, and the second now expected to arrive no earlier than dinner time.
Shi had been wrong.
About the weather.
That never happened!
Omen carefully paced around the field of glass and dried blood that marked the site of the incident two days prior. Shi wasn’t alone; Firenze was there, along with Rock and Wraith from security, Prometheus as a witness, and the Mightyena twins, Sinister and Dextus, for tracking and as character witnesses. Shi wasn’t concerned about scent trails or broken foliage: that was their department.
What had hir interest was the scourge at the center of the glass field, where an old chunk of plywood had been thrown across glass. In Aura vision, it appeared as a greasy black smear, concentrated around the area where Eclipse had presumably stood, and then trailing into the woods getting smaller and more translucent until it but a pencil-thin wisp that quickly faded to near-undetectability. Omen watched as Firenze briefly strayed into the smear’s trail to look through the hole in the underbrush left by Eclipse’s retreat. The proud manager visibly shuddered and turned to scan the surrounding treeline. In Omen’s eyes, the smear stuck to his impeccable hide and briefly followed him as he turned to follow Rock’s summons.
“Boss, come look at this,” The shiny Lycanroc squatted down on the side of the road, facing west towards the trap. He angled his head so it was about level with Firenze’s when he walked. When the head manager pulled alongside, he pointed towards the crime scene. “Tell me what you see.”
Firenze frowned, but played along. “Glass, old blood, plywood, my employees…”
“Right...” Rock got on all fours and lowered his head further. He reached over with one paw and gently guided Firenze’s head to do the same. “And now?”
Firenze’s mild annoyance at his employee’s impertinent action disappeared. “I can’t see the glass anymore…”
“Correct. This road leads uphill as you move east, and it peaks about here,” Rock picked himself up and pointed a white-furred foot at the asphalt, “and then briefly falls away into a depression that ends over there!” He pointed with a foreclaw at a point some hundred paces away. “It’s really subtle. Larger mammals like you or I wouldn’t even notice, but a smaller creature, say, a Linoone, wouldn’t be able to see the trap over the crest until it was too late to turn.”
“Which is why Sugar, who was sitting on top of Cinnamon’s back, was able to see it in time.” Firenze finished.
“Exactly.” Rock nodded, satisfied.
“Okay, so what can we learn from this?” Firenze gestured for the Lycanroc to continue his lecture.
“It means this was no random attack.” Rock said, “This trap was very deliberately prepared for someone like Quippie, specifically.”
“Quippie said that Eclipse had called him ‘predictable’.” Prometheus chimed in.
“That proves it!” All eyes slid towards the Mightyena twins pacing the perimeter. The twins remained stalwart in their defense of their brother, even as they offered to “cooperate” in the investigation. “It can’t be Eclipse,” Dextus continued, “because a trap like this is way too clever for him!”
“You think a trap like this is beyond him?” Firenze asked.
“Eating other Pokemon is ‘beyond’ him” Sinister pushed her way in front of Dextus. “…but even if we assume it wasn’t, which it is, he wouldn’t go about it like this. Eclipse is strong, and he knows he’s strong, and he’s impatient. If he wanted Quippie, he’d just jump in front of him and open his mouth!”
“Hmph.” Firenze considered that for a moment. “Omen, do you have anything to add?”
Omen blinked in surprise, momentarily summoned back to the world of the tangible, “What? Oh, Prometheus! You mentioned this is one of Quippie’s regular running grounds, yes?”
Prometheus nodded. He hadn’t taken his eyes off the spot on the ground next to plywood, where he had found Quippie. “He comes here to practice cornering.”
Omen quickly threw together an argument in hir head, “Then his scent was probably all over the side of the road. Any number of predators could have been waiting in the bushes, not necessarily someone who knew him in particular.”
Dextus’ expression brightened, “Yea! Exactly! It could’ve been some other Mightyena!”
“Except for the fact that I saw him drooling over my best friend!” Prometheus yelled, glaring at Dextus.
Omen swept a paw through the air, through the trail of grease. It offered no resistance, but it felt as if the blood in hir veins had turned to ice. “I’m not saying it wasn’t Eclipse you saw, but…Wraith, can you move the glass, please?”
Wraith nodded and lifted the shards into the air, then condensed the cloud into a ball of broken glass no larger than her head. Omen noted that the Froslass’s power was slightly distorted by the greasy cloud, but the glass slid right through the goop without disturbing it in the slightest. The Froslass blew freezing air over the ball of accumulated glass until it was covered in a sticky, cold layer of ice, before dropping it safely into the dirt.
Omen moved forward and pointed in the air. “There’s some sort of auric residue here. Sort of like…well I’m reminded of a Gastly...but more toxic.”
“You think maybe it was an illusion? A Ghost type looking to feed off some fear?” Dextus said, hopefully.
Firenze rubbed his chin and asked, “Why would a Gastly go through the trouble of laying a trap like this? Most of them are fine just loitering around a dentist’s office.”
“You saw how people reacted - are reacting - to the news that Eclipse is back. Maybe they heard about it and saw the potential for an easy feast?” Wraith wondered out loud.
“But to nearly kill another Pokemon?” Firenze countered, “And now they’ll have to deal with a manhunt! It’s rather difficult to feed off the ambient fear when everyone’s looking for you.”
Prometheus pointed at the hole in the underbrush, “And what about the trail? If it wanted to run, why not just fly away instead of crashing through the underbrush?”
“It’s not Eclipse!” Sinister said, as if saying the statement one more time would magically make it true.
“Hmm…I’ll alert the psychics to keep a look out for strange ghost-types.” Firenze decided. “Let’s follow the trail and see what we can find. Maybe we can find some more clues in the forest.” Firenze led by example, pushing into the trail of broken foliage. One by one the rest of the team followed suit.
“Oh, and Wraith,” Firenze added, “I’d like to speak with you after we’re done here. I have a few…opportunities I think you’ll enjoy.”
“Sir?”
“Come to me this afternoon with your resume. Oh, and Sinister, I also wanted…”
As Firenze’s voice faded into the background, Omen lingered. Shi circled the strange, sticky, dark miasma. The Gastly theory only superficially fit the evidence. They may have been floating conglomerates of dark emotions, but they were still emotional, and they didn’t leave such a persistent imprint on their surroundings. This thing wasn’t of any emotion, yet there was also a certain malignant air about it. Like it simply shouldn’t be here. And yet, it remained here tangible as ever even as the rest of the emotions from Tuesday afternoon had started to fade.
The only real clue shi had to go on was that the feelings it gave her matched those shi’d been feeling all week, but dramatically intensified. So whatever was wrong with Eclipse, or ‘Eclipse’, was almost certainly the cause behind hir beloved forest’s distress. At least, then, shi had an endgame. Find Eclipse, figure out what happened to him, and find a way to fix it.
And hope to Arceus whatever he’d done to himself wasn’t permanent.
Or contagious…
* * *
Elegance carefully shifted from pose to pose, slowly and fluidly straining and stretching her muscles in preparation for the day ahead. It was a ritual that she had performed every morning of every day for nearly two decades, but recently the exercise had taken on newfound importance.
First thanks to her.
And now thanks to him.
After one final contortion that had her joints pleading for respite and injected her brain with excessive dopamine, the Meinshao relaxed, satisfied. Her rib had healed, as had the rest of her. She was ready to defend her home, and salvage its honor which had been so terribly called into question…
‘Is that really your responsibility?’ murmured a voice in the back of her head.
Elegance frowned, suddenly doubtful.
‘Is it even wise to volunteer? You are not the bodyguard you once were…’
She flexed her arm and threw a couple experimental punches. The actions felt familiar, but sluggish and not quite as precise as they once were.
‘…And this scandal, is it not deserved? Even that scoundrel Miranda’s accusations carried grains of truth. You know this…’
The Meinshao shook herself. ‘This establishment, guilty or not, is filled with wonderful Pokémon who have done nothing to deserve this blight on their reputations. I will defend them, whether the Café itself deserves it or not!’ And with that she pushed her way out the door and made for the waiter’s lounge.
The Lounge was predictably rather full and noisy. With the Liberation, an event still in living memory, there were no shortage of battle-trained pokémon in Plaisir, although only a small percentage of them were ready and willing to revisit such violent periods of their lives. Elegance was unsurprised to see her pupil, October, chatting comfortably with Chai in the furthest corner of the room, no doubt looking to finish the feud he’d inadvertently entered half a year before.
Her eyes drifted left, over to where Jack and Ceylon sat hunched over an otherwise empty table. The senior staff members were looking determined yet exhausted, while on the opposite side of the room the resident Machoke, Garric, relaxed against an old armchair looking confident. And in between all of them were a dozen-odd other Pokemon the Mienshao was far less familiar with, covering nearly every elemental type in the book save the conspicuous absence of psychics. Ironically, it was the security staff that was most scarce among the manhunt crew, though given Firenze’s need for visible on-site security she supposed it made sense that they remained here and not wandering about the forest.
Then she noticed a familiar, tiny green figure sprawled over the arm of a couch, and her eyes narrowed. It didn’t take long for Pepper to see her in turn and give her a smug smile. Elegance was having none of it. She shouldered her way closer, until she could speak to her without shouting.
“What are you doing here?” she growled.
“Same as you!” Pepper responded, her voice dripping with false innocence, “Firenze put out a call for strong, capable fighters -which I am- to take care of your Mightyena problem. So here I am!”
“You were supposed to leave! Two days ago, if I recall.”
“I got delayed. And then your former coworker nearly killed my friend’s friend. So now I’m staying.”
“No.”
“Yep!”
“Absolutely not!”
“Absolutely, yes!” Pepper grinned triumphantly. Unnoticed to either of them, the waiters and security staff nearby had ceased making idle conversation in lieu of watching the unfolding argument.
“Pepper this isn’t- its not-” Elegance shook her head angrily, words failing her. “This is not a battle! Nobody is going to humor you out in the forest!”
Pepper briefly narrowed her eyes at the word ‘Humor’. “I’ve spent time in the woods on my own. I can handle myself.”
“You are volunteering to fight an attempted murderer!”
“He can’t be that tough if you think you can take him!”
The Meinshao brought a fur-covered hand to her head, too smart and, if she was honest, fearful for the Paraplegic’s safety to care about the obvious bait. “You do not understand,” She muttered. “ Eclipse is a train-“ ‘That won’t convince her’ “He is too str-” ‘That’ll just make her want to fight him more!’ “He once mutilated October’s leg with a single shadowball attack! Imagine what that could do to you!”
That got Pepper’s attention. “Really?” She asked, giving October a quizzical look.
October winced, both at the memory and suddenly getting pulled into the argument. “Yeah, he did a number on me once. Broke the bone so hard it breached the skin. Had to recall and grab a healing potion from home.”
Pepper’s curiosity turned to skepticism. “What type of potion regrows limbs?”
“The magical kind.” October returned Pepper’s look of skepticism with one of indignity, “Don’t give me that! We live in a world with literal wish-granting fairies! You came here through an eldritch interdimensional portal. There is a literal psychic power called ‘Heal’! Is an extra-strong potion really where you draw the line?”
Pepper shrugged and smiled. “Well if he’s that strong, Eclipse’ll make one hell of an opponent!”
Elegance groaned, “This isn’t a game, Pepper.”
“I know. It’s an opportunity!” Pepper knotted a vine and thrust it into the air, “Because if everyone thinks Eclipse is that strong, then when I defeat him, they’ll know I’m even stronger, and nobody in this godforsaken brothel will doubt me again.” Pepper’s voice dropped to a whisper, “You least of all...”
Before Elegance could reply, the door to the waiter’s lounge opened. A blue Sylveon - Petier - marched in with a box between his ribbons. Several pairs of eyes narrowed as he dropped the box on the table in the center of the room, revealing it to be filled with maps, compasses, radios, and dozens of dollar-store-tier Pokéballs.
“Gentlemen! Ladies!” Petier said, in his thick eastern European accent. His gaze swept the room, noting the silence and fixing on Elegance. “…Is somethings wrong?”
Elegance pointed at Pepper, “Mr. Petier, you cannot honestly be thinking of letting a crippled starter pokémon join us on this venture!”
Everyone in the room winced at her words and looked warily at Pepper, but the Chikorita just maintained a smug smile.
Petier gave the pair a stern glare, unhappy to be drawn into waiter politics. “Elegance, you know better than any. She is strong. VERY strong. We are to be needing that.”
Pepper’s smile broadened. Elegance’s frown deepened. She knew, and Elegance could tell she knew, that her actions in the Garden had had their intended effect.
“We are needing everyone for this,” He continued, “and I am to seeing pokémon in far worse shape join the fight. Is willing, yes? She follows rules, yes? Then no problems!” He reached into the box to pull out a thick stack of papers and laid them across the table. Before Elegance could press the matter, he turned his back to her towards the rest of the room.
“I am to being honest with you all; This will be no walk of cake! Firenze needs us to be searching some seventy thousand acres of forest for one Mightyena who is not wishing to be searched for!.” he shrugged expansively, using his long ribbons for the gesture. “No time for equipment and Firenze is not letting us use my special toys, so we do this old way! Maps. Compasses. Phones with GPS if you are having them”
A Vaporeon in the front of the crowd raised an eyebrow, “Thousands of acres? No way Plaisir owns all that!”
“Hah, no no. You think Eclipse cares? ‘Oooh, I am big scary dangerous murderer, would not want to being caught doing the trespassing, oh no!’” He shook his head. “This is not just Plaisir. We go into deep forest. As deep as we need to, until we are finding him.” Petier opened the map on the table, holding it flat with his neck-ribbons. “And so, we will be planning…” One of his head-ribbons traced a circle around the café’s general location. “Radial search, starting at Plaisir and facing mostly East.”
Elegance leaned forward and studied the map. A great big ‘C’ had been scrawled in permanent marker on the center-left of the map, and various dotted lines crisscrossed the topographic lines representing the hilly terrain east of Plaisir. Some of them, roughly leading radially away from the café, had been highlighted in different colors.
“Where did you get this?” someone asked.
“...What, you do not have map? Is very useful. You should buy one soon!” ” Petier pulled a pack of colored markers from the box and dropped it on the table. “Everyone! We are to be going into pairs. Each pair will be having color and trail. If you are finding anything, use phone or walkie talking to call in. No phone? No walkie? Just yell. We all will come find you. Simple!”
There were murmurs of ascent from the volunteers, save Elegance, who was only paying the security advisor’s briefing the barest minimum of attention.
Petier continued speaking as he pulled a set of handheld radios out of the box, “Now! If anyone is to be finding Eclipse, then remembers! Call for help first, while you can, so everyone is knowing where he is. You ARE NOT to be takings him on alone! If he is seeming confident, run. No risks, yes? Good? Good.”
“You think those bargain bin slave spheres are enough to hold Eclipse?” October asked, eying the balls with distaste.
Petier shook his head, scooping one up with a ribbon, tossing it and catching it in the air. “These? For him? To be laughing!” He looked up at the volunteers with a smile. “They’re for you!”
Everyone in the room began talking at once.
“What?”
“Huh?”
“Explain.”
“You can’t be serious!”
“Aheh. Sorry October, but yes, seriousness is what I am being right now.” The Sylveon rolled the Pokéball between two, then three of his ribbons. “Is old tactic, simple and dirty. We used to do this all of times in old country. You get injured? You bleeding out? Poof! Into ball. Fastest mon’ runs you back to café, poof! Into sickroom. No problems! Can’t do THAT with a mon’ who is three times bigger than you are being!” . He tossed the ball across the room to Garric, then a second ball to Elegance, and so on until everyone save October was holding a ball. “Once you’ve been ‘claimed’, find a mon that you are trusting and give them your ball. They are to be your patrol partner. You are stickings together and if one of you is hurt, the other can run. WITH you. And hey, they are being cheap! Easy to break free. In case of… emergencies.”
“I’m not submitting myself to one of those stupid capture balls!” October declared.
“Then you must put on security coat and be ready to spend evening guarding side door,because no-one is to be going outside without plan of escapings.” Petier said sternly. “That is goings with rest of you! If you are unwillings to get in balls, then stay. Clearly Eclipse too scary for you, if scared of tiny red ball.”
Several waiters shifted uncomfortably, some looked ready to leave. But nobody wanted to loose face in front of their comrades. October groaned, then made his way towards Chai, whispering something in his ear. ‘No doubt,’ Elegance thought offhandidly, ‘He’ll arrange something to do with that mystical tower of his’
Petier finished his briefing with a stern glare at Pepper and Elegance. “Alright, everyone! Capture yourselves, be grabbing radio, find partner and pick route. And for love of arceus remember to label your balls!” Despite the tense nature of the meeting, there was one last round of sniggers.
There was a cacophony of strange electronic noise and red light as two-dozen-odd Pokémon slammed their Pokeballs into their foreheads and disappeared.
* * *
“Another week!?”
“Possibly, if you’re not careful.” Nurse Boora stomped around the table to dump the old bandages in the garbage.
“Couldn’t you just, I don’t know, smear more potion all over my legs?” Quippie whined.
“No.” Nurse Boora’s voice hardened a bit. Not to be mean but just emphasize the point. “Those potions aren’t designed for deep wounds. Bruises, cuts, abrasions, lighter burns, those they can heal. And if you have the money for it, they can come with painkillers or adrenal boosters. But something complicated and deep like this?”
The Nurse popped the lid off a biohazard container and tipped it slightly to display the contents inside: An amalgamation of blood, glass, and her own green-and-purple-ish slime. “I was picking out glass lodged in your bones, Quippie! Wounds like this take time!”
Quippie groaned, partly out of exasperation and partly at the disgusting cocktail that had been in his feet earlier. He looked away.
“-Be happy your friends didn’t try to use a potion before you came to me, or the muscle might have tried to heal around the glass and trapped it inside.”
“I wasn’t even sure where to start if I could! There were bits of muscle and skin hanging off all weird and...” Sugar trailed off, looking slightly nauseous at the memory.
The Nurse’s expression softened again. “Look, I know this is hard for you, but if you try to rush it any further, you’ll just make things worse. Just lay back and let the accelerants and herbs do their job.”
“I can’t lay back! I’ve been ‘laying back’ for two days! If this keeps up, I’m going to explode!” And Quippie meant it. How could he even describe it? It felt like his limbs were falling asleep, and yet at the same time they were hypersensitive to the touch. Too itchy not to address, but the pain so great that even the slightest rub blanked his mind. Quippie’s posture collapsed, spreading himself across the table like some strange badger pancake.
“I’m sorry, but you’ll have to make do.” The nurse turned to Sugar, “Ready to get these off?” She pointed at the stitches in Sugar’s wings.
Sugar nodded and stretched out his arms, waiting patiently as the Nurse set about removing the sutures. Quippie looked up and noted the dozens of criss-crossing scars across Sugar’s wings; this was old hat for him, it seemed. It made him wonder…
“Alright, the skin is still a bit weak, so nothing too strenuous until Sunday at the least.” Nurse Boora handed him a couple herbs. “You could opt to buy a potion, but I wouldn’t recommend it.”
“You don’t seem to like potions very much,“ Cinnamon observed from the floor.
Nurse Boora took a knee to check over the blind Linoone. “It’s not that I don’t like them. They have their place; but patients have a tendency to try and substitute them for proper treatment; for real healing. And they tend to quaff the things down in unhealthy quantities and that can lead to long-term complications. Case in Point! She shot a meaningful look at Quippie.
“Uuuugh! I can feel myself getting fatter by the second!” Quippie sulked, and shuffled forward and peaked over the table. “How do you deal with it, Cinnamon? Not being able to run and all?”
Cinnamon thought a moment before speaking. “Well, I lost my eyes the same day I evolved, so I didn’t even realize at first what the problem was. I just felt more and more and more antsy until eventually I started walking a bit too fast and tripping over myself more and more. I started running into trees and trying to jump around, anything to burn energy. Then Mary realized what was happening and rented a bike. She put one of those zip-tie things between the spokes of the wheels so I had a sound to follow, and that was that! Once a week we’d go on a bike ride to release the energy in my legs, and the rest of the week was...kinda awful, in hindsight. But at least I had Sundays!”
“Hrrmph!” Quippie turned Sugar, “What about you? How did you deal with not being able to fly?”
Sugar shrugged, “I never really missed it to begin with. I was so happy to be free of all the migraines and involuntary discharges that losing my flight felt trivial by comparison.”
“Were they really that bad?” Quippie asked.
“One time I passed out from the headaches and blew up a gas station in my sleep. It was really bad!” Sugar twisted a wire between his fingers, recalling the devastation. “All the fire and the metal shrieking and tearing itself apart…the screams…mostly my own.”
“That was when me and Honey and Mary found you right?” Cinnamon said, smiling at the memory. “Mary actually thought you were some sort of incendiary device bomb when I pulled you out!”
“Yea…Besides, I actually can’t remember flying all that much,” Sugar continued, “and it’s hard to miss what you never really had.”
“Plus, once you recovered, you started riding on my back and then Honey made that saddle and that’s when I really learned what it was to be a Linoone!”
“Must’ve been nice...” Quippie mumbled.
“Yea...but at least your state is temporary!” Cinnamon’s tone brightened, “And you have Prometheus! I’m sure he’ll be happy to help you release some pent-up energy...somehow.”
“Believe me, we’ve been trying.” Quippie said back, “But anything more strenuous than oral just irritates the wounds!”
“Oral?” Cinnamon’s face twitched in confusion, then again in recognition. “Oh, right, sex! I figured you’d try board games or yoga or something.”
That statement earned him some weird looks from the natives. Then Sugar put two and two together and jerked upright.
“Wait...more than Oral?” Sugar gave Quippie a look of amazement, “No friggin’ way!”
Quippie gave the Emolga a cocky smile, “Yep!”
“You’re joking!” Sugar turned to Nurse Boora, “Tell me he’s joking!”
The Goodra frowned, “Quippie’s something of a regular here. He has a habit of...overtaxing himself with Prometheus.”
“Worth it!”
Sugar gaped at Quippie. “How is that even-where do-How?” He sputtered.
“Come to Prometheus’s room sometime and we’ll show you!” Quippie laughed as the Emolga’s face flushed red at the imagery.
Then Quippie felt himself starting to slip from the table and instinctively shifted his paws to stabilize himself. Another throb of pain quickly wiped the smile from his face. “Ugh! Goddammit...” He moaned.
“...Neon said she was hosting some sort of dungeons game-thing tonight in the lounge.” Cinnamon offered. “You wanna come?”
“Sure, I guess.” Quippie sighed, unenthusiastically. “It’s not as if I have anything better to do.”
Cinnamon pressed on, “Oh! And I ran into Rain Flower this morning! You were right about standing your ground and stuff: she didn’t even touch me!”
“Oh yea?” Quippie perked up.
“Bit of a strange conversation though.” Cinnamon continued.
“What’d she do?”
“Well, first she asked why I knew Electric attacks...”
“Oh, good question,” Sugar said sarcastically, “I don’t know, maybe literally the exact situation she put you in?!”
“...and then she asked if I’m gay, and then she decided the reason I electrocuted her was because I wanted to be on top?” Cinnamon’s face twitched in confusion. “And then, she tried to convince me to have sex with her again!”
Quippie frowned at that. “You know, if I didn’t know any better, and if this was anyone other than Rain Flower, I might suspect she was gaslighting you!”
“Gaslighting?”
“Trying to make you doubt your own memories of the event; Muddy the waters.” Nurse Boora idly explained. “But this is Rain Flower, so she’s probably just being dense.”
“Well, I mean, she seemed so desperate at the end there, when I told her no...” Cinnamon mused, “I’m not sure. I think she’s genuinely regretful about this whole ordeal.”
“Don’t let her define the narrative here.” The nurse warned, “Even if it’s unintentional, you don’t want someone else making you doubt yourself in these sensitive matters.”
“I understand...” Cinnamon straightened his posture and seemed to come to a decision. “I need to talk to her again!”
“You sure?” Sugar asked.
“We need to settle this.” Cinnamon said with an air of finality. “I don’t want to spend the rest of our time here fearing her, and I don’t think she intended to scare or hurt me or anything to begin with.”
Sugar hummed skeptically. “Well if you’re gunna do that, we’ll either need to catch her in public or schedule something with Clarice-“
“Let’s do the first one!” Cinnamon said, quickly.
Quippie chuckled, but noticed Nurse Boora frowning. “Something wrong?” He asked.
“That attitude: That you can’t rely on management to mediate the meeting or help you. It’s...troubling.” Nurse Boora took a seat. “This isn’t the first time I’ve seen this conversation either. All this distrust in the authorities; the reluctance to involve them in issues. It’s the kind of attitude that let Eclipse run rampant for so long.”
“You’re saying we need to talk with Clarice then?” Sugar asked.
“That is up to Cinnamon. If he feels Management can help then he should ask.”
Cinnamon pondered it for a moment. “I think I’d rather talk to her directly, and alone.” He decided.
Boora frowned. “I fear I may have remained apolitical for too long.” She said, earning quizzitive looks from the room. “I treated far more of Eclipse’s victims than I care to admit, and hid still more in my clinic when he got angry. I never said anything, due to patient confidentiality, but if I’d mentioned the general attitude towards interventions to Firenze.” The Goodra stared into her hands, “Who knows, maybe Eclipse would’ve been fired early -or at least been more restrained...”
“At least you were there for them though.” Cinnamon pointed out, “If nothing else, at least they could come to you in confidence.”
“I could’ve done more.”
“You are doing plenty.” Quippie assured her. Though he couldn’t quite muster more than a sour smile through the throbbing of his paws.
Nurse Boora just murmured noncommittally and leaned back in her chair to stare at the ceiling.
A knocking on the door precluded further discussion. Prometheus immediately entered the clinic without waiting for a response. “Hermes!”
Quippie’s mood immediately lifted as his best friend shouldered his way through the door. “Prometheus! You guys find anything?”
The massive Arcanine shook his head. “Trail’s cold, no surprise there. All we really learned is that Eclipse was deliberately targeting you, and Omen said that his aura is weird.”
“Weird? Weird how?” Sugar asked.
Prometheus shrugged, “Shi was being vague about the whole thing, as Omen tends to do.”
“Who’s Omen?” Cinnamon asked.
“Shi’s an Absol herm who predicts the weather for us.” Quippie explained. “Shi’s really reclusive...and kinda creepy to be honest.”
“Quippie!” Boora admonished.
“What? You’ve seen that stare of hir’s. And she spends all her time running around in the woods like the Mightyena siblings...” Quippie’s voice grew conspiratorial, “Rumor has it she’s just as dangerous as them too-“
“Quippie! Enough!” Nurse Boora turned to Sugar. “Omen isn’t dangerous. Shi’s never done anything to hurt anyone and some people just need to rein in their idle speculation. Maybe even, say, talk to hir? If they’re so concerned?”
“What about the rumors about Eclipse? They were right! Who’s to say they aren’t right again?” Quippie shrugged, “That’s just what’s coming down the grapevine!”
“Well I think those grapes are turning rather sour!” Prometheus crouched down to let Quippie shuffle onto his back. “Come! Let us trouble Nurse Boora no longer.” He turned to Cinnamon and Sugar, “Would you two care to join us for a late lunch?”
Sugar frowned, “Actually, we’re sorta waiting for-There you are Honey!”
The Mimikyu in question had just rounded the frame of the still-open door. A shadow-arm stretched behind them out of view. “sorry. late.” Honey cracked the underside of their shell to wave...and froze, seeing the huge Arcanine towering over them; at the entire room staring at him.
“...”
“...you alright, sweetie?” Nurse Boora asked. That jerked the Mimikyu out of their stupor. Their red-dot eyes disappeared from the lenses of their disguise and their voice echoed from the bowls of the colander. “here gift. wait outside.”
And without any further explanation they shoved a strange-looking assembly of copper tubes into the room and edged back out the door. ‘am sor-’ *Slam*
The door reopened.
sorry.
The door slammed shut again.
“Hmph. Speaking of strange pokémon...” Prometheus pulled the “present” forward with a toe. It was a four-wheeled affair, with copper tubes forming a frame between which cotton sheets had been hung. Sugar realized what it was almost immediately and jumped to the floor.
“It’s a hammock! For Quippie!” The Emolga turned the cart parallel to the Linoone. “Here, put him in!”
Prometheus raised an eyebrow but complied, grabbing Quippie around the barrel and carefully depositing him in the cradle, belly down. Quippie braced himself as his paws brushed against the fabric for a moment and sent sparks of pain up his legs.
Then he was in, and Quippie immediately realized the genius of the design. His legs hung down just low enough that the tips of his claws could touch the floor. Quippie briefly squirmed around to get comfortable, then started experimentally scraping his claws against the floor and testing the limits of his newfound mobility.
“It’ll be easier when you hit the carpet.” Sugar advised.
“This is...actually pretty good!” Quippie started making paddling motions against the ground, gaining speed. “Turning’s a bit stiff, but otherwise...yea! This’ll work! Thanks Hastuuuuur-ohshit!”
The Linoone misjudged the next turn and face-planted into a wall.
“Ow.”
* * *
“I still can’t believe you actually chose to join me, of all pokémon!”
*Thwack!*
“You left me no choice! Nobody else seems to understand just how vulnerable you are.”
*Thwack!*
“Aw, how cute! Little Mienshao playing bodyguard.”
“More like babysitter…” Elegance muttered under her breadth.
*Thwack!*
“For someone who acted so eager to find and fight Eclipse, you seem quite eager to alert him to our location.” Elegance observed with ears pinned against her head.
*Thwack!*
Pepper soared through the air, sprouting vines to pool and twist below her and cushion the fall. Every time she landed, she’d reel in her many limbs, tighten them, reorient her body and with a great *thwack* she’d snap them into the floor to propel herself forward. The end effect was something akin to a Politoad, albeit with many more and smaller limbs. Pepper paused and waited for her patrol partner to catch up, “Please. As if Eclipse could be this close to Plaisir! If he was, someone would have caught his scent while taking a nature walk or screwing in the bushes or whatever. Mark my words, we won’t see hide nor hair of him for at least an hour, assuming we see him at all!”
*Thwack*
“But why are you doing it? What purpose does announcing our presence to every living creature in earshot serve?”
“Right now? Nothing. It’s more just practice for the next time I fight a fire type, or a poison type with acid.” Pepper ceased jumping and transitioned to her more conventional spidery form, one which brought her level with Elegance’s head. “I got eight vines which can stretch anywhere from fifteen to thirty feet, depending on circumstances. If I’m fighting, say, an Arcanine, I need to conserve that length as much as possible, since they’ll be doing everything in their power to burn my vines down. One way to do that is to keep the vines short and hop around like a Frogie. That way even if they burn off a Vine, it’s only about two or three feet, not ten or eleven. It hurts, and it’s not as fast as other techniques, but I’m not immobilized. And I can switch-off between the different methods quickly as the situation develops!”
“You seem to have put a lot of thought into this.” Elegance admitted despite herself.
“Surprised?” Pepper started skittering backwards along the game trail they’d been following for the past half-hour. “Fighting is my life! It’s all I ever think about.”
Elegance looked away. “It shouldn’t be, though.” She whispered.
“What’d you say?” Pepper asked.
“Nothing!”
Pepper frowned and turned around to look at their first major obstacle: a rocky escarpment some forty feet tall that bordered the Northeastern edge of the Café’s property. It was also the original reason they had chosen this route: Petier figuring the tiny bundle of hyper-mobile vines and agile bipedal ferret would have the least trouble navigating the rockier, hillier areas of the forest compared to the larger and quadrupedal waiters.
Elegance took a brief moment to study the rock face, then curtly nodded her head in satisfaction. She ran forward and jumped up onto a tiny outcropping no more than an inch wide. Before she lost her momentum she’d kicked off the ledge and neatly wedged her right toes into a crack in the stones, then it was up to a root she caught with both hands and a swift pull-up onto the cliff’s edge.
Pepper was already waiting for her, having used the canopy of the trees below to slingshot herself over the obstacle entirely. She looked smug. “So here’s my plan,” She said, “We won’t find Eclipse; Eclipse will come to us!”
Elegance picked herself up and dusted herself off. “Explain.”
“We’re in his territory, walking his game trails. Any Mightyena worth their salt will smell and hear the search teams coming a half mile away unless they’re going out of their way to be stealthy, and even then he’ll certainly see them first.”
Elegance raised an eyebrow, “And?”
“Well, if he sees or hears a pair of Lycanroc or a Typhlosion talking all human-like, he’ll probably prefer to hide and let them pass. And it’s his territory so he’ll know all the best spots.” Pepper smiled as she spoke, “But if he sees a ‘poor defenseless paraplegic’ and a small, sour-ass ferret blundering through the forest, he’ll probably think of us less as rivals and more as prey!”
“You are relying on him-”
“To hold the same prejudice as you? Exactly!”
“Hmph.” Elegance grunted and looked away.
“…And once we’ve soundly thrashed his ass and stuffed him in a Pokeball, all that reputation he’s built up as a dangerous predator who shouldn’t be messed with? Yea, that’ll be us! Nobody’ll doubt my right to fight again!”
“Is that what this is about?” Elegance asked. “The only reason you are here is self-validity? Fine! Pepper, you are very skilled, and strong, and you showed excellent martial prowess during our bout…”
Pepper gave the Mienshao a deadpan glare.
“…so there’s no need to go running into the jaws of a murderous predator!” Elegance finished.
Pepper rolled her eyes. “Okay, sure. Now say it and mean it. And maybe instead of trying to appeal to my vanity like I’m some sort of child, maybe just admit that I should be allowed to fight like anyone else.”
“Fine. Pepper, I’m sorry I insinuated you were not fit to battle.” Elegance said, unconvincingly.
Pepper’s mood immediately brightened. “Great!” She said, “I guess that means there’s no problem with me joining the hunt, then!”
“Pepper!”
“-There is another way, I suppose.” Pepper took a moment to crack her neck before continuing. “If you and I had another battle. A proper one, in public, I think that might erase any doubts among the remaining waiters…”
Elegance’s eyes narrowed. “No.”
“Yea, that’s what I thought.” Pepper said, resigned.
"Even if I were to entertain another match, how could I be sure it wouldn't turn into another brawl?" Elegance crossed her arms and turned to look Pepper in the eye "You lack control. You let a couple perceived insults and a wounded ego drive you to destroy the Café garden, and endanger bystanders! How can anyone battle an opponent who can't be trusted to hold back? And how can you control the ring if you cannot even control yourself?"
The Mienshao turned and walked away leaving Pepper to sway in the wind and digest Elegance's lecture. But that only lasted a few moments. Pepper was nothing, if not a quick thinker.
"It's more complicated than that." Pepper said. Elegance didn't stop, but she slowed a little to let the Chikorita catch up. "You didn't just insult me. You belittled me! In front of every off-duty battle enthusiast in Plaisir, I’ll bet. I had to fight you! If I hadn't, if I had just sat there and watched you leave...they might have believed you."
Elegance turned her nose up at that last statement. "You place too much importance on what others-"
"It IS important!" Pepper pulled ahead and around the Meinshao so that her vines barred her way. The Chikorita elevated herself to look the Meinshao face-to-face. "It's easy to announce your reputation isn't important when you're renowned or respected by default! It's so easy when people describe you with words like "Elegant", or "Honorbound", or even just "Fighting Type". Even people who don't like you use words like "Old-Fashioned" or "Stuck-up"; they imply a degree of sophistication that you enjoy. What do you think they call me?!"
Pepper's vines had slowly expanded to surround the duo, cutting the two off from the rest of the forest. Elegance held her ground but didn't speak.
"Cripple. Victim. Incapable. Weak. Invalid!” Pepper inched closer and closer to Elegance's face with every descriptor, to the point where one could feel the other's breath when they spoke. "And once you're in that hole, you can't get out! People assume you’re weak, so they refuse to battle you. So you can never prove yourself, so they assume you’re weak, so they never battle you!"
And just like that, the little grass type ran out of steam. She sank to the ground and slowly retracted her vines. She looked tired, albeit not in any physical sense. "I had to fight. I have to fight. If I don't keep fighting, I'll never be allowed to do anything."
It was the Mienshao's turn to think, and she took her time. They had been walking in silence for nearly ten minutes when the Mienshao finally spoke. "One time, Chai presented me with a riddle. He asked, 'How can a born thief gain honor?' and I told him that nobody is born a thief…"
Pepper snorted.
"…but I suppose this is what he really meant."
"Let me guess, Umbreons have a reputation of thievery, so they can't get jobs, forcing them to steal to survive, enforcing the stereotype?"
"Less ‘Umbreon’ so much as ‘dark types in general.’" Elegance glanced at Pepper, “You understand, though?”
“Same trash, different can.” Pepper simply said and left it at that. They walked in silence for another minute.
"...I'm sorry."
"hmm?" Pepper looked up.
"I am sorry I called you an invalid in front of everybody and left you there. I didn't realize you had so much stake in a 'friendly spar'-"
"It was friendly! Up until...that."
“But I maintain that you should not be risking yourself in combat like that!” Elegance finished. She waited, trying to gauge the Chikorita’s reaction. Predictably, she was glaring.
“Have you never considered a safer occupation?” Elegance met the Chikorita’s piercing gaze with one of placation, “There is nothing dishonorable about living a safe and productive life.”
Pepper rolled her eyes.
“And if nothing else, your friends won’t have to worry about your health and safety!”
For a moment, the Chikorita finally looked sincere. “…Yes, actually.” She admitted, “Back when I first joined Mary’s team, she put me to work as a cook for the team, and it was Hastur who fought for us, if reluctantly. It was simple, gratifying, I made everyone happy without much effort at all…” Her face twisted with rage. “I hated it! There was no challenge, no competition, no self-improvement! All I ever did was wander around all day picking berries and following instructions out of a cookbook!”
“There’s nothing wrong with that!” Elegance insisted.
“I. Grew. Soft.” Pepper growled, “I lost all my drive, grew complacent, became nothing but another child’s pet. I doomed myself to a life of obscurity and mediocrity and for a while I fooled myself into liking it! Fuck that! The day I stop improving myself is the day I stop respecting myself. I’m going to keep fighting and keep struggling until the day I die, and-”
“That day might be sooner than you think!” Elegance cut in.
Pepper froze in her tracks. Her eyes widened with surprise and comprehension.
Elegance started launching into a lecture, “Because you realize it is only a matter of-”
“Is that what you did?” Pepper suddenly asked, “Was your old job too scary or difficult, so you became a Masseuse instead?”
Elegance’s words died in her throat. She hesitated.
“Did you screw up or something?” Pepper pressed on.
Elegance quickly shouldered her way around the Chikorita and started walking away.
“…Oh, You did screw up!” Pepper swung around and gave chase.
“I do not wish to talk about it.” Elegance said dismissively.
“What happened? You screw up a battle? Fail your trainer?” She could tell she was hurting her with her questions, but Pepper wasn’t feeling merciful. “Did he call you worthless and leave you? Or perhaps you got him hurt and couldn’t bear to stick around?”
“I do not want to talk about it!” Elegance walked faster.
“Well I don’t like being told what I can or can’t do, yet here you are!”
“It is none of your concern!”
“Well neither is my health, but here we are!”
“You are being very rude!”
“Well you’re being ableist!”
Elegance spun around, her face twisted with rage, “What is going to happen when you run out of luck, Pepper?” She shouted, “Someday, something is going to catch you off guard and you are going to die! How is your trainer going to cope with that?”
A shadow of doubt crossed Pepper’s face.
“Because this is not just about you, Pepper. Your recklessness hurts others in ways you can’t understand!” Elegance’s voice rose to a screech, “One day your recklessness is going to get you killed, and your friends and family and everyone you ever loved will wonder if it was their fault! Wondering if they could have stopped you and if they should have stopped you and WHY YOU HAD TO BE SO DAMN STUPID!”
Pepper stared in shock as the red-faced Mienshao finally took a moment to catch her breath.
“Elegance...what happened?” Pepper almost whispered it.
The Mienshao looked away. “It is none of your concern.”
Then she walked off, a mystified Pepper slowly trailing after.
* * *
Cold air and silence, broken only by her footsteps. Terror and desperation filled her; tears stained her face. Her lungs screamed and her feet throbbed but she continued on and on and on until a root caught her boots and sent her sprawling in the dirt.
A pokeball tumbled out of her hands and bounced down the road before opening of its own accord. A flash of light resolved into a shivering, bleating, pathetic creature.
“Fluffy! Fluffy please, get back in the ball.”
“Fluffy! Wake up!”
“Wake up!”
“WAKE UP!”
Mary’s eyes shot open, then watered as icy air from a vent under the sinks washed over her. She lay prone on the grime-encrusted floor of a gas station bathroom, her sponge and bucket sitting not a couple feet away. She checked her watch. 4:00pm: She’d been out for maybe ten minutes. Mary quickly hauled herself back onto her hands and knees and got back to work.
This was the sixth petrol station bathroom she’d managed to find in need of cleaning that day, and hours of hard scrubbing had worn even her considerable muscles raw. It had been grueling, disgusting, thankless work, but it was work, and if she could finish just one more today she’d have enough money banked to afford both a dinner, a room, and a little left over for the medical fund. Not enough, or even anywhere close, but if Mary could keep this pace for a couple weeks and they combined it with the funds from the rest of the team…
…Oh who was she kidding? This wasn’t going to work! She had searched for a stable job with a proper wage, but nothing nearby even wanted to look her way without valid identification, a work visa, a resume…and her difficulty with Poke-speak or whatever it was was making her damn near unemployable! Thus, she was stuck performing odd jobs for others’ spare cash.
Mary had hit up every job on the Pokecenter’s bulletin board, but most of them were, predictably, either bounties for lost or wanted creatures she had no way of finding, construction work that required a whole team of pokémon she didn’t have, or menial work like this, which was less a valid paycheck so much as pocket change for less fortunate trainers looking to get to the next bus stop. There was also that one job to root out a Rattata infestation at the local library, but the idea of betraying her quasi-comrades in hiding just made her uncomfortable, and it didn’t pay very well anyways.
Still, she kept scrubbing. And she would keep scrubbing until she had a better idea. It didn’t matter if she was exhausted, or hungry, or filthy, or cold. She had a family. She had responsibilities.
Aether forsake her if she shirked them again.
“Lookin’ pretty good there, Miss!”
Mary paused and turned to see a man half-again her age watching her from the door. He was clad in the Maroon polo shirt and black jeans that apparently qualified as a uniform here, and his eyes were unashamedly tracking her upturned backside. She had half a mind to just ignore him…but until she got her paycheck, he was effectively her boss.
“Sir?”
“The floors. They’re looking pretty good…among other things…”
“Oh,” Mary said. ‘Gross!’ she thought.
“Here!” The man pulled out his wallet and counted out the cash she’d earned. Mary reached out to accept it only for the hand to pull away. “You know…” he started to grin, “for a little extra service, I might be able to part with a little bit extra.”
“Extra service? As in…” ‘Pleaseohpleaseohpleasebesomethingbenignlikecleaningthehalls!’
“As in of the Carnal Nature, yes.”
Mary almost suppressed her revulsion, but the man ultimately saw her look of disgust and simply returned one of contempt. He tossed the money he had on the ground and walked back out the door. “Chuck out the water and leave the supplies in the closet. Bathroom’ll need cleaning again in a week…if you’re still around.” And just like that, he was gone.
Mary watched the door slam shut before pulling the thick rubber gloves off her hands and covering her face.
‘Well’ She thought, ‘It’s all up from here, right?’
‘Right?’
Lord, she hoped so.
* * *
It was a surreal sight. Such that he thought at first he might be dreaming it. An apparition of black and white standing at high, narrow profile atop a rock. Projecting no aura at all.
It was clearly a Pokemon, but Leon had never seen its like. It was proportioned somewhere between mountain goat and mountain lion, with unnaturally moon-white shag, ebony flesh and a great scythe of a single horn. As well as powerful, dexterous claws, by which it casually, seemingly impossibly, stood atop the sharp point of a tall, tapered rock. It was smiling at him with pitch-dark, feline-esque features and big, glassy eyes.
Then he saw Thread, finally catching up to them. The Linoone looking tired and relieved as he ran through a cut between rocks, catching sight of him. The apparition was atop the rock, just above Thread, smiling at Leon.
Then in a flash, Leon felt the aura and wanted to scream. For a clean and pure darkness engulfed this valley, a cruelty beyond compare. He wanted to scream. He tried to scream to Thread, to warn him, but by the time he had half a breath, the apparition had leapt-
A pair of twenty-sided dice bounced across the board and everyone held their breath -only to moan in despair at the result.
“Nat Twenty.” Sugar reported to Cinnamon, “Critical Hit.”
“Goddammit!” Quippie slammed his face into the table and growled, “That’s twice in one day!”
Neon checked a chart behind the DM screen and quickly tapped out some arithmetic on a calculator “…you take…uh, you’re at -5 hitpoints and dropping.”
“Here we go again…” Pex slouched opposite Neon with his chair on two legs and his feet on the table. “I swear, Quippie, you have the worst luck in MD&D. What is this? The third? Fourth time you died in the Surprise round?”
“Can I reach him from my current position?” Cinnamon asked, hurriedly.
“You’re still tied up, and you’re 300 meters away, and it’s not your turn.”
“What about me?” Sugar asked.
“Still at the bottom of the hill.” Neon sighed. “Sorry Quippie. I think you’re dead. Again.”
“Ugh.” The Linoone bit his character sheet and ripped it off the table in frustration, the immobilized badger unable to do much else other than rest his chin on the table and let his eyes wander across the waiter’s lounge.
“Quippie,” Prometheus said, placatingly, “How about you roll up a more vigilant character for next time?”
“We HAVE a vigilant character.” Quippie mumbled, “He’s literally tied up by terrible diplomacy checks!”
Cinnamon could only shrug sheepishly.
“Figures the one time I plan an encounter to challenge metagamers, I get a party who actually roleplays and splits up and pretends to distrust each other like normal people.” Neon muttered and started flipping through her notebook. “Alright! Gimme a minute to set the encounter. Looks like the word of the day is T-P-K!”
“I thought those were letters?” Cinnamon asked.
“Most words are letters!”
While the illiterate Linoone mulled that over, Sugar took a moment to call across the room. “Honey? Are you sure you don’t want to play?”
Across the waiter’s lounge, the little ghost was dressed in his mustard-yellow backup-sheets; his Mareep costume carefully disassembled in front of him for repairs. The disguise’s outer ‘hide’, an old white undershirt, had been peeled back to reveal the old colander, which was scarred with a myriad of symbols, most prominently the leaf-symbol Hastur was so fond of etching onto everything. Glue, scissors, thread, paint, and a ripped up old pillow surrounded the Mimikyu, which he was using to replenish his costume’s wool coat. The whole scene looked like an 8th grader’s art project gone horribly wrong and left forgotten in a corner.
“no. am content. will listen.”
They may not have been participating, but Sugar knew Hastur appreciated the offers. Anything that made them feel like they were a part of the group, but not the attention of the group, would make them happy. Sugar looked back and caught a glimpse of Prometheus eying the Mimikyu warily.
“Something wrong?” He muttered.
Prometheus shook his head. “Just wondering where they’re getting all that stuff.”
“They’re not a thief, if that’s what you’re implying.”
“Of course not…” Prometheus looked like he wanted to continue, but he decided better of it and looked out the window. “It’s getting late.” He noted.
“No, it’s getting dark.” Sugar pointed at the calendar across the room. “Weather report said we’d have heavy thunderstorms this evening.”
“Hope the search teams get back soon. If Eclipse were to catch them in a rainstorm…”
Sugar considered the sentiment for a moment. “Hey Honey?” He called, “Are the search parties in any danger?”
“no. all safe. back soon.”
“There you go!” Sugar slouched back in his seat, satisfied.
Prometheus grumbled, “But how does he know that? And what else does he know?” Prometheus eyed the little ghost, who took notice and shifted to put his disassembled disguise between himself and the crowd. “Does he know where Eclipse is?”
“…who.”
“Who? You fought him two days ago!” Prometheus rose his voice slightly in annoyance. The Mimikyu’s blanket shrunk a little.
“I don’t think Honey was at any of the meetings. Too many people.” Sugar explained.
“So he can track all the teams in the forest and see the future, but he doesn’t know who Eclipse is even after meeting him face-to-face?” Prometheus turned away from Hastur to give Sugar a skeptical look.
“Is it not enough to know everyone’s safe?” Cinnamon asked softly. It was less a retort than a genuine question.
“It’s just what they do and don’t know at any given time seems a little erratic.” Prometheus said.
‘By which you mean ‘suspicious’’ Sugar thought to himself. “I’m sure if he knows something and it’s important, he’ll tell us.”
“Like if you’re going to get attacked by a murderous Mightyena?” Prometheus pressed.
“please stop. am sorry.” The little ghost had set aside their work and were staring at Prometheus. “i failed. am sorry”
Prometheus returned the stare for a moment, trying to find some sort of emotion or trace of insincerity in those two red dots, and finding none. Civility quickly reasserted itself. “It’s fine. I understand.” It wasn’t, and he didn’t, but Prometheus wasn’t ready to make an argument of it just yet. And so, the group returned to their game, playing out the adventure to a rather grim conclusion over the course of thirty minutes.
“…Also, why am I always the first to die in these stories?” Quippie watched as Prometheus’ Sawsbuck finally ran out of hitpoints, “Are low-HP characters just underpowered or something?”
“It’s because you chose a Linoone. Everyone knows Linoone are terminally unlucky in these stories!” Neon replied as she started tearing down her DM stand.
“Whaat? Bullshit!”
“It’s true! Three outta four times I play a game or watch a movie or anything and there’s a ‘Noon in it, they get stuffed in the fridge!” Neon pointed across the table, “Even the ones I know in real life aren’t exactly in good health!”
“I think I’m pretty lucky!” Cinnamon offered.
“Really?! Really? Staff-Sergeant Stitches wants to tell me how lucky he is?” Neon gave him a skeptical look.
“Yea! I got a family, I get to run every day, I got a trainer who loves me, I even got a job now! What more could I ask for?”
“Hues? Visual Acuity? Depth Perception? Not to say I’m not happy you’re happy, but don’t you miss your eyesight at all?”
“Eh.” Cinnamon shrugged, “It’s not so bad so long as you got friends to help you. Right Quippie?”
“CLAUSTROPHOBIA~!” The smaller Linoone wiggled and rattled the frame of his mobility aid for emphasis. “…But yea, Prometheus has been a huge help keeping me sane.” He added, sharing a look with the Arcanine.
Sugar smiled and leaned forward onto the table to rest his chin on crossed arms. ‘Leave it to Cinnamon to turn a bad game and superstition into a lesson in friendship and mushiness’ His eyes wandered towards Honey, who likewise seemed to place so much emphasis on companionship for all their antisocial tendencies. But the little yellow bundle of sheets wasn’t paying attention. Instead, they seemed to be staring at the exit. Sugar idly followed their gaze towards an Absol standing in the door.
Hir eyes widened in horror.
Hir body frozen with terror.
Hir jaw agape, emitting a low whining sound.
‘What the?’
“AAAAAAAAAIIIIEEEEEEE!” Omen screamed and backpedaled into the hall, before charging away and out of sight. Shouts of concern and surprise followed her, and then there was the sound of shattering glass before the door into the waiter’s lounge slammed shut and muffled any further response from the outside world.
Five pairs of eyes turned to look at Hastur, but the Mimikyu for once seemed too busy to care about the questioning expressions looking their way.
“[sub]No. No. No. No. No. No…[/sub]” Ribbony arms whipped back and forth, hurriedly and haphazardly reassembling the costume. Superglue slapped against the shell; the white undershirt stretched and pinched into place so quickly it tore in places. The mask was shoved into its cavity from the inside and held there more by pressure from the ghost inside than any glue or bolt. Hastur rammed the assembly over themself and clawed their way across the carpet in an attempt to leave the room all the sooner.
“Honey…are you alright?” Sugar asked. He slid out of his seat and carefully approached the distressed Mimikyu…
…Only to yelp and stumble backwards as a shadowclaw whipped around and sunk itself into his Satchel. The ethereal hand tore the engraved stone embroidering the front of the satchel free.
Honey continued to chant, “[sub]no. no. no. no.[/sub]” all the way to the door. They flung themself out the door and out of sight, Sugar hot on his heels. But by the time he managed to peak around the doorframe after them, all that was left of the Mimikyu was a torn shred of fabric hanging on the windowsill at the end of the hall.
“Sugar? What’s going on?” Cinnamon walked as fast as he dared out into the hall, sticking to the wall.
Sugar quickly looked back and forth between the window, his torn bag, and Honey’s mess on the floor. “…aw FFFF-”
* * *
“-UUCK!” Pepper slid beneath the falling tree an instant before it could crush her flat. A moment later, Elegance vaulted the trunk even as it rolled and settled on the forest floor. Neither of them acknowledged how close they had just come to death; there was simply no time! Behind them, a primordial force of nature harried their every step.
Not Eclipse, as they had expected, but a storm front, and a freakishly large one at that. Its winds were strong enough to knock a Pokemon off their feet. The rain lashed out with enough intensity to blind them both, and bits of hail and sleet that had no business in the early spring threatened to give any creature foolish enough to bring its head up unprotected a concussion. Lightning struck with an unnatural rapidity, sending overstressed trees to the forest floor and generating a near constant roar of thunder that deafened the duo.
And it was only getting darker.
A hollow in a tree ahead offered momentary shelter. Pepper quickly threw herself as deep into the hole as she could, followed more cautiously by her groundbound companion. It was muddy, shallow, and half-flooded, but it beat the torrential rain outside.
“You sure we’re still going the right way?!” Pepper shouted over the wind.
“We just need to find the road!” Elegance replied, looking composed despite being soaked through and freezing. “Then we can follow it to the resort!”
“But you’re sure the road is this way?!” Pepper emphasized. She didn’t need to clarify: the clouds and heavy rain had erased any sense of orientation, and even Elegance was starting to fear they might get turned around. “Goddamn, I thought they said it was a light rainshower, not a freaking Monsoon!”
Elegance looked out the hollow, tried and failed to get her bearings, and withdrew. “Perhaps we should remain here, then?!” She suggested.
Pepper thought about it. They had shelter here, but it was limited, and they were still soaked and freezing. Mud pooled between Elegance’s legs and every time the wind changed direction, it would send stinging, freezing rain into their burrow. They stayed here and they would surely get a cold. Pepper made a decision.
“Mediocre hovels are for Mediocre ‘Mons!” She yelled and unsheathed vines. “C’mon, we’re finding that road!”
“Pepper don’t-”
She threw herself out into the storm. But instead of picking a direction, she immediately found a solid-looking tree and started climbing. She could hear Elegance calling at her below, demanding she return, but Pepper was already committed and halfway to the canopy before Elegance could so much as extract herself from the muddy hole.
The tree swayed, dangerously. The wind howled and threatened to rip her free and send her flying to god-knew where. All around her were the sounds of snapping branches and groaning wood. Still, Pepper had limbs far longer and more numerous than the typical Pokemon, and it afforded her a far more stable position amongst the trees. Soon enough she was swaying dangerously among the treetops, anchored to a dozen different branches and the trunk itself.
She turned just in time to watch a tree across from her explode from a lightning strike.
“[sub]Pepper![/sub]” Elegance’s voice was almost completely swallowed by the wind. “[sub]Get down here you idiot! You are going to get hurt![/sub]”
Pepper ignored the Meinshao, the wind, the hail beating against her back, even the lightning strikes, and narrowed her eyes against the rain. She quickly scanned her surroundings, looking for any sign of the road, or better yet the Café itself. At first, nothing but trees, wind, and darkness, but then her night vision adjusted and a blocky lump spotted with blurry lights made itself known in the distance.
Then she heard the telltale splintering of wood and felt the trunk of her tree breaking and twisting beneath her vines. Suddenly her multivined grip turned into a liability as she was rapidly entangled in the shifting branches.
‘Shit!’
The top of the tree twisted, then bent, then broke and began to lazily tumble to the ground.
“Pepper!” For a moment, all Elegance could see was an avalanche of green and brown as the tree struck the ground; the force of the impact sending her stumbling backwards out of reflex.
The wind died down for a moment, still present but softer, as if mother nature had finally said her piece about reckless Chikoritas climbing her trees in thunderstorms. Elegance took advantage of the momentary quiet to approach the debris.
Nothing moved.
The Meinshao was almost afraid to look.
Then, right as she reached forward to part the branches, the massive mound of wood and dying leaves exploded and a vine gripped her about the waist.
“C’mon! Plaisir is this way!” Pepper tore off without another word, dragging the shell-shocked Mienshao behind her.
Now knowing exactly-sorta where she was going, Pepper was able to move with confidence. Her vines, seven in all, stretched forwards to grip trees and root into the dirt, bracing both fighters against the wind enough to make steady headway even when directly into the wind. Her final vine remained about Elegance’s waist, tying them together like a lifeline. For once, Elegance had no comments for what just happened, and they completed their journey in relative silence.
Nearly half an hour of careful navigation later, Pepper and Elegance could see the warm lights of Plaisir through the treeline, promising safety and shelter. It was here that Pepper finally slowed down, coming to a stop in the relative shelter of the treeline. She let Elegance go and turned to look at her.
“Alright. One last dash and we’re good. Ready?” She asked.
The shattering of glass precluded any response. Pepper twisted back around to see a shadow jump awkwardly from the third floor to the ground and stumble a few paces before accelerating into the treeline to their south. Whatever it was, it was screaming bloody murder and paid the weather no heed. A moment later, a second, smaller shadow flung itself from the same window and tumbled to the ground, bounced, then produced a massive pair of shadowy limbs that sunk into the concrete and pulled the creature forward in pursuit.
Pepper blinked. Then she realized Elegance had overtaken her and was now sprinting through the sleet and wind towards Plaisir. She quickly moved to follow,having an inkling of what had happened and desperately hoping she was wrong.
Petier was waiting for them at the entrance. “Ah, hello, good!” He smiled as the soaked specimens stumbled through the front door. “All are back now. Were you seeings anything? Others di-Wait, come back!”
Pepper ignored him and made for the stairs, intent on finding Sugar and getting answers. She needn’t have bothered; the Emolga burst through the door atop a barebacked Cinnamon an instant before she could open it. A number of other Pokemon she didn’t really know following after.
Cinnamon caught her scent and spoke first, “PepperHoneywasseenorsomethingtheyjustchased
OmenoutthedoorHELP!”
“Shit! How?”
“Wedon’tknowtheywerecovereditwaslikeOmencouldseerightthroughit!”
Pepper looked from Cinnamon, to Sugar, then back to the front door. “Well there’s only one thing to do, then!” She thought out loud. Pepper turned skittered for the exit. “Stay here, I’ll go find them.” She opened the door, but a white and purple arm thrust itself between her and the portal.
Elegance looked at Pepper sternly. “You seriously intend to go back out into that?” Another lightning strike punctuated her question.
“My friend’s in trouble. I’m going to find them. Move.”
Elegance responded by poking one of Pepper’s many, many bruises and scratches. “You are in no shape to go back out there. We were lucky to escape harm the first time! Especially given your little stunt with the tree!”
“Ugh, this again?” Pepper rolled her eyes. “Fuckit. I’m out!” And without further preamble a pair of vines wrapped around Elegance’s barrel and roughly shoved her out of the way.
“Wait.” Petier’s ribbon softly reached to wrap gently around one of Pepper’s vines - not restraining her, exactly. A subtle hint of the Fairy’s calming aura radiated from it. “Your friend. The, ah… ‘Mareep’. Were they ever wild Pokémon?”
Pepper gave him a look. “Yes?”
“Then we are to be waitings here; They will be making own way back.” Petier held up another ribbon to forestall any arguments, “If you go, and they come, we will all have to search for you. If you go and none of you are comings back, we will have to be findings you both. Classic rescue team blunder!”
Pepper glared, “I can handle myself.”
“So we have been seeings. But no-one could be tracking them in that! Better to stay. Wait until morning.” Petier replied, soothingly.
Pepper grumbled, then looked out into the parking lot, then back at Cinnamon and Sugar. “Fine…” she conceded, “But only until morning.”
“Come dawn and clear blue skies, we will be searchings again. For Eclipse,for Omen, and for your friend!.” Petier promised.
Pepper growled, but backed down. “Fine. But we’re going as soon as the weather clears!”
Another flash of lightning outside the front door followed by a deafening roar sent the more timid pokémon to the floor out of reflex. The lights went out and everything was momentarily plunged into darkness. Then the backup generators came online, and the lights were on again, if slightly dimmer for the lack of excess power.
“If it clears.” Sugar noted grimly.
Pepper just sighed and left to stand vigil in the bar.
* * *
