บท 45: Darkrai, Ruler of Darkness Pt2
Narrator-POV:
A man can be seen struggling through the underbrush of a forest located right next to Alamos Town.
He carries with himself a laptop but he fails to carry himself in style. His movements, awkward and ungainly. His lab coat, covered in stains, both fresh and old.
"Stupid... shrubbery..." His youthful voice reveals that his age is much younger than his balding appearance suggests. "Where is it? Have you found anything, Drifblim?"
Above him floats the zeppelin-like pokemon, carrying science equipment in his tendrils. He is not only the scientist's most trusted assistant but also a relic of his family's once-thriving breeding business.
One of Drifblim's tendrils points towards Alamos Town's public garden. "There? Alright. Let's go."
Easier said than done as he soon realizes for his frail, underutilized body.
Through thicket and overgrown paths, he stumbles and struggles closer to his target.
"Did you hear that?" Close enough to hear voices.
The voice he heard is one familiar to him. He recognizes it as the voice of his best friend in the world, Alice.
Another voice rings out. "It must be Darkrai... Go, Lickilicky! Use Hyper Beam!"
"Hyper Beam? Did I hear that right?"
But just as he finished saying that thought out loud, a bright light appeared through the leaves in front of him. "Oh, no!"
Desperation fuels his movements. Every piece of hope he can muster pushes his legs into action and he dives for the ground.
The man was not fast enough. A blast of Hyper Beam, powerful enough to rip a man apart, tears through the thicket, slamming into his stomach.
However, the universe's rules have been shattered and rearranged.
Cough! Cough!
Against all odds, he only coughs out a few puffs of smoke like a cartoon character, his injuries are superficial. A firm slap on his back could turn the painful burns into a cloud of ash.
"Ouch! What did you do that for?! Cough! You're very lucky I survived that, you know?! We still don't know what circumstances allow for the activation of the Paradox Phenomenon. Be more careful!"
The man stumbles out of the bushes during his tirade, corrects the glasses on his face and begins to fuss over his computer. "Thank Arceus nothing is broken... You?! Alberto! It was you!?"
"Harrumph. That is Baron Alberto to you."
"Tonio! What are you doing here?" Alice rushes over to help, patting him on the back to cure his burns.
"Ouch! Careful, Alice. I can't afford to lose my computer now... The abnormality must be somewhere nearby! But where..."
His eyes are glued to the laptop's screen, oblivious to the world.
"This is my friend, Tonio." Alice proudly explains to her tourist group. "He's a scientist and it was his grandfather who designed the garden."
She expects him to give a greeting of some sort but nothing happens until Alice waves her hand in front of Tonio's face.
"Oh! Alice? What are you doing here? I am investigating a space-time abnormality that I had detected yesterday. Something has happened... I know I'm close to but I just can't find it."
His stare returns to his laptop's monitor. He did not even notice the rest of the people around him.
"Dude." Barry says.
"Where could it be?"
"Dude!"
"My equipment says I'm practically standing right on top of it!"
"DUDE!"
"Huh?"
"Dude, look to your left."
"Alright. There is nothing there."
"No! He meant on our right!" Ash tries to solve the confusion.
"That's still my left!"
"Sorry. They meant your right." Brock finally clarifies.
"Oh! Yes, this definitely looks like a Space-Time Abnormality."
"Have you seen some before?" Dawn questions.
"No. Never. But what else could it be?"
Swole already did his own theorizing. "Could it have been a Space-Time Convergence? Like the one on route 218?"
"Ha! Don't be ridiculous. The energy signals from the STC were far stronger than this. Only an uneducated hick would be calling this an STC."
Swole mumbles about his shit-list having grown one entry longer. Barry chuckles.
"Hey, Tonio? Do you watch the Science Channel?"
"Huh? Of course I do. What a ridiculous question. Now leave me alone, I need to concentrate."
Swole makes a circling motion near his temple to indicate Tonio's loose screw. Almost everyone laughs at that. But none laugh louder than Baron Alberto.
Tonio, despite being absorbed by his computer, hears the familiar, mocking noises from his past. He recognizes it from his usual bullying and hazing during his school days. Shame begins to surface as the memories return from a life he thought he left behind after graduating.
"Hey! Stop making fun of him!"
"Alice my dear," Baron Alberto says. "This isn't the schoolyard. You don't need to protect his honor anymore. And you don't have to be so nice to him either."
"But--"
"After all, you are to be my wife, remember?" Alberto sneaks an arm around her waist.
Both Brock and Tonio recoil in pain as if struck in their faces.
"No way!" Dawn exclaims.
"Eh?" Zoey is speechless.
"Congratulations, Baron." Swole remains polite.
But Alice pushes Baron Alberto away with all the force she can muster in her flustered state.
"Excuse me, but I thought I told you no already!"
Tonio and Brock recover as if their souls have returned after a near-death experience.
"Come on! I'm still way too young to think about marriage." The crimson faced Alice mumbles.
"I'm already engaged and I'm like, almost half your age."
"Ehhh!?" Brock and Ash are shocked by the revelation and even the innocent Barry feels a tad of jealousy.
"Excuse me?! What do you mean, half my age!? I'm only 22, not 40-something!"
"Huh!? What do you mean 40-something? Do I look over 20!? I'm 14!"
"No way! What did they feed you?"
Puberty, workouts, and aura training have begun to bless our young hero with an impressive physique. To show off, he flexes his arms.
"I eat what I feed my Pokémon. And I work out almost as much as I train them."
"He's secretly a pokemon." Barry jokes. "... Wait... You were a twig before you started your journey. Your growth is inhumane! How did you do it!? Tell me your secrets, you imposter pokemon!"
"Ahhh! You've figured me out! I have always been a Zoroark and I simply forgot how to transform back."
"Doesn't that mean I have been smooching with a pokemon the entire time!?" Dawn continues the joke while Buneary grows a blush. Thoughts of humans and pokemon kissing each other have wormed themselves into her fantasy.
"Wait!" Alice says. "You two are already getting married?! You are so young!"
This kills the mood.
The innocent question pulls out an uncomfortable confession from our hero.
---
"Aaargh! I am so jealous!" Brock collapses on his knees and cries to the uncaring gods above. "A harem! And women just flock to you! So unfair!"
"We don't flock to him!"
"Sigh. I was quite popular with women myself at his age..." Baron Alberto reminiscents on his time as a teenager. "Still, 3 at the same time is impressive. But why are you already thinking about getting married? That's the time to experiment, my boy! You shouldn't settle down too early!"
"It just means that we are a very great catch who make settling down worth it." Dawn nods along to Zoey's comment before realizing what it means and she stops nodding.
In her head, she tells herself that only she is a very great catch. The others are 'decent'. But even deeper in her mind she believes the opposite is the case.
"I don't understand what's so impressive about it." Tonio continues to tip away on his laptop but he had listened intently to every word that was said and tried to gauge Alice's reaction to everything. "A real man should only be attractive to one woman."
"What kind of logic is that?" Swole disagrees. "A real man is as attractive as he can be. And he does it for the benefit of the women that lo-- like him."
Dawn does not buy it. "Ah, right. Of course. You are becoming a hunk because you are sooo selfless."
"Oh? Would you rather have a scrawny boyfriend?" Swole asks as he closes in on Dawn like a carnivore on a tasty morsel of meat. His fit form towers over her.
"W-well, no--"
"Someone who doesn't know what he wants and doesn't have the motivation to go after it?"
"Y-yes? I mean, n-no..." Her knees are growing weaker as his hand wraps around her waist to support her weight.
"You want a confident man who takes what he wants. When he wants. A champion."
"Y-ye--." She chokes a response out but a champion does not wait.
He steals a kiss from her lips that leaves Dawn red-face and her breathing rapid.
"That's what I thought."
He disengages from his hug and leaves Dawn behind on shaky legs to un-bother herself while Zoey and Salandit look on in lustful envy.
Not even Alice can escape a slight feeling of envy at the sight, despite her childhood crush standing right beside her.
"Hahaha! Good job, boy!" Baron Alberto laughs out loudly at the chauvinistic display. "Say, what's your name? I don't believe it was mentioned before?"
"Swole Solo, from Twinleaf Town."
"Solo, eh? Ben Solo the father and Elizabeth the mother, correct?" Our hero nods. "Sigh. And here I hoped we would see the rise of a new family to power. Hm, still, I am interested. What are your goals?"
"I am going to become the next Sinnoh champion."
"Ha! Spoken with the conviction of a future champion, indeed. I'm sure--"
Rustle
A noise comes from the adjacent and startles everyone. Humans and pokemon alike with weaker hearts cling to their nearest protectors for security as a somehow familiar feeling of dread fills our hero's mind, body and soul.
In a moment of panic, Alice decided to cling onto Tonio's arm for safety. Meanwhile Dawn and Zoey seek out their boyfriend for warmth against the suddenly colder atmosphere.
A shadow casts itself over the section of the garden that the trainers are currently in and they begin to look around in a panic.
The sun itself dims and darkens despite there not being a single cloud in the way. It is as if light itself fears whatever has come to greet the tour-group.
Then, the earth begins to quake for a brief few seconds and another barely visible shimmer flitters across the sky. The laptop's monitor in the hands of Tonio flashes and its speakers blare warning sounds.
"Again!? Another space-time abnormality nearby!"
A few meters away, in the darkness of the nearby forest, a purple shimmer shines for a brief moment. The next, a tree falls over. Cleanly cut apart at the base.
An impossibly clean cut in fact. Not a single atom is out of place but all the molecules that held the tree together have simply fallen apart.
The eagle eyed Ash Ketchum can spot a shadow sneaking around the tree. Seemingly the cause of the abnormality. "Look! Over there! On the ground! Something is there!"
The sun dims even further. What used to be a bright and sunny afternoon has been corrupted and turned into a dark and dusky night. The power of the sun amounts to just a little more than a full moon in the presence of this creature.
Do not come here.
Out of the darkness rises a shadowy pokemon. His body is black as the abyss and shapeless at the edges. A wisp of white hair grows atop his head and hides one of his cold, blue eyes. He has no mouth to talk with but a blood red collar that almost looks like a lower jaw.
"D-Darkrai?"
"Finally." Baron Alberto found his target. "So this really was you... Lickilicky, use Hyper Beam!"
But Darkrai is too fast. In the blink of an eye he returns to the ground and becomes a shadow once more.
Hyper Beam misses and just a single moment later, Darkrai reemerges from the ground. He has flanked Lickilicky and fires off a pitch black orb that swallows up light itself.
But the projectile travels through the air slowly. Slow enough that even Lickilicky can sidestep the attack; He only needed to pull his stomach in a little bit to avoid a grazing hit.
... However, the people behind him did not have that courtesy. They did not see the move coming at all because the massive, hulking body of Lickilicky was hiding the events from their eyes.
"Ash! Watch out!"
The warning was too late. The orb touches him and his body briefly loses all color before he collapses on the ground.
"Ash? Ash!?"
Our hero grabs his girlfriends by their hands and gets between them and Darkrai's new location. His pokemon in turn jump off his body and get ready to fight for everyone's lives.
But they can't see Darkrai anymore. Their heads move on a swivel to try and find him again.
"Someone-- No, Tonio, go check on Ash!" Baron Alberto barks out the order. "Everyone else, stay together and stay calm!"
"Where did he go?" Swole asks. "Has anyone kept track of Darkrai?"
"Ash is alive. Just asleep."
"Mawile, stay ready to tank if that orb comes again." Dawn concludes that it must have been a dark type move and Mawile is one of only 2 pokemon in the group that is resistant to the dark type attack.
"Riolu you--" Swole hesitates. Riolu is far too young to be tanking against a legendary pokemon.
~"I will." Nonetheless, the pokemon's sense of duty prevails.
A rustle of leaves captures everyone's attention near the north side.
It was just a gust of wind.
Swole uses his aura abilities to check if anything is nearby but he cannot find anything.
'Maybe his shadow form hides himself from aura.' He thinks to himself.
Their eyes are still wide open but adrenaline is fading.
The sun shines brightly once again.
"... Is... is he gone?"
"Dawn... Haven't you seen any horror movies? The moment you think he is gone, is when he prepares to strike again!"
"Swole?" Barry asks. "Haven't you seen any modern horror movies? Once you start commenting on horror movies, the opposite always happens. Which means we're safe now."
"You're right, I forgot... Wait, but now you said we are safe. Which means we aren't safe."
"Guys?" Dawn says. "Can you stop? This isn't a horror movie. And we need to get Ash to a pokemon center."
"You're right, we need to get Ash to the pokemon center. Barry, Brock, can you carry Ash? Zoey, let Misdreavus scout. Dawn, we are on tanking duty. Buneary and Salandit, help out Misdreavus."
"Good thinking, lad. Lickilicky, attack Darkrai the moment you see him."
---
Swole-POV:
Every step is hell. Each noise could be the start of an ambush. A stark contrast to the idyllic environment of the garden.
The only thing that keeps me going is my trust in Buneary. I don't need to worry about anything as long as she doesn't hear anything suspicious.
The others already relaxed enough to begin casual conversations, but not me. I will stay vigilant until we are back in the town. At least.
Alice and Baron Alberto have begun talking about his royal duties. Alice was under the assumption that he just sits on his ass all day and was surprised about him knowing my family.
It was informative enough to listen in, while my eyes remain fixated on Buneary for any signs of an ambush.
"I know all of the prominent trainer families. Well, the ones living around Jubilife City. There are a few on the other side of Mount Coronet that I never had to interact with."
"... But why?" Tonio asks. "I just don't see how this information is in any way important enough to remember."
"Harrumph. Shows what you know. Who do you think pays for your scholarships? Almost everything is funded by powerful trainers. They rule the region. The Platinum family simply makes sure their ruling is to everyone's greatest benefit."
Huh? I rule? Cool.
"And so the way you influence the families is through...?" Alice asks.
"Through the language of the rich, my dear: Favors."
"Ah. So it's just corruption."
"Is it corruption when it has always been so? Besides, it is the civilian population who benefits the most from the system."
"How so?" Tonio takes over the questioning again. "Doesn't that mean the people get no real say in what the government does?"
"Of course they don't have a say-- Ah. I might be talking too much. Everyone of you is a trainer of some kind, yes?"
Various forms of 'yeah' are thrown his way. Only Alice says no.
"I can tell you more about how the world works after we are married, my dear Alice."
"I told you already, I'm too young to marry. And who knows, I might end up marrying Tonio instead."
"Huwha!?" Tonio is so surprised, he chokes on nothing.
"Haha! You have quite a sense of humor my dear. Your jests are simply amazing today."
Happiness drains from Tonio's face but he still puts up a front of a smile. "So. This was all just a little joke... hehe..."
Man, that guy is oblivious.
~"You sshould claim her for yoursself."
The devil's temptations are falling on deaf ears this time.
"No way. Just Dawn on her own is enough of a distraction. I don't need a bigger harem."
~"Jusst 5 is enough for you?"
Dawn, Zoey, Akari... Salandit and Buneary... The other pokemon are giving us weird looks.
~"6. Don't forget about me, daddy."
I pick my jaw back up. Did I hear that right?
Not a single one of my pokemon is normal!
Well... It was my fault with how Riolu turned out to be. But still! 3 out of 3 are insane!
~"Right. Sssix. Sssix ssexy femaless to have hot ssteamy --Salandit." Parts of her speech were just pokemon-noises to me. ~"But don't you think that'ss not nearly enough? You should at leasst claim 100."
"100 in my harem? Are you insane?"
~"I'm inssane for you!"
I flick her snout with my finger and she retreats further down my back and hides herself between my body and backpack.
"Swole?"
"Yes Dawn?"
"Just what the hell are you and your pokemon talking about?"
"N-nothing? We're just joking around! I swear!"
~"No I wassn't. Tell him Buneary!"
~"You should aim for 8. One for each gym badge."
I hide my head in shame as the other pokemon keep sending worse and worse stares at us.
~"But aren't there gyms in every region? So Kanto should have another 8 badges."
Not you too, Riolu! "How would I even get 8 badges if I'm going to be so distracted all the time?"
"I'm sure you can do it." Zoey comments.
A grin on her face shows that she knows exactly what we have been talking about.
"I believe in ya. You can do it!"
Did she hear all of that?! Does she know all my pokemon are freaks!?
She winks suggestively.
She knows!
I bury my head deep in shame. All of my earlier staged confidence is washed away like a foundation that has been ruthlessly attacked by decades of erosion.
"Haha, but for real, what were ya talking about with yer pokemon? It sounded mighty interesting from just your side of the discussion."
She... she pranked me?
"Ahem... Nothing?"
"Riiight. 'Nothing'-- Hey!" I slapped her ass. "... Do it again."
"... No."
---
We went back to the entrance to the garden. Back through the 'cast bronze' gate and back to the town where we made a quick detour to the pokemon center.
Darkrai didn't end up attacking again but a little bit of worry remained the whole time.
Nurse Joy took Ash from our hands. Brock, Alice and Tonio all split off to follow him and to wait for him to wake up.
Baron Alberto left. He said he needed to make sure that nobody is in the public garden anymore before he would close it down until Darkrai could be driven off.
Barry and Zoey made sure that Ash ended up in bed in a stable condition and then returned back to us.
Which leaves Dawn, Zoey, Barry and I in the waiting room of the pokemon center.
"So."
"So?"
"What now?"
"I dunno man." Barry replies. "We should wait until Ash is awake before we continue the town tour."
"But what do we do until then? Just training?"
"Dawn, how about us girls do some shopping? We haven't done that since Jubilife."
"... I do need some more outfits. Swole, what kind of dresses do you like best?"
How should I know that? "Uhhh--"
"Don't ask him. It's gonna be a surprise. Come on." Zoey drags Dawn away by her hand and so it's just me and Barry in the end.
The glaring sun shines directly in our eyes as we exit the pokemon center together.
"Want to--"
"Wanna go check out the festival?"
"Sure why not." I wanted to suggest a sparring match. But the festival is nice too.
It has been far too long since it was just us guys doing something together. Just Barry, me... and Lucas.
"Hey, I have an idea." I say. "Let's get some alcohol again before we go to the festival street."
"For old times sake, eh? Yeah. Let's do that. But we don't have adult IDs."
"We just need to find another guy who doesn't care."
Barry chuckles as we look for a convenience store. "How many shops do you think we need to look through to find someone like that again?"
"I'd say one. Just look at that guy." It's the first convenience store we could find. "Greasy hair, dirty glasses, messy uniform, playing on his phone with earbuds. He doesn't give a shit what we do."
In the end, the cashier asked if I was buying the alcohol for Barry but then waved me through and went back to his phone after I said no and paid for it.
A conveniently placed, suspiciously dark alley was just a few blocks away and we entered it to get drunk out of the public's eye.
Barry takes a bottle of beer and I pass cider to Buneary and a beer for Salandit. "You like bitter stuff, right? Then you will enjoy this."
She starts gnawing at the bottle cap but actually succeeds at opening it before I could help her.
~"What about me?"
"Sorry Riolu, you're too young." She gets a bottle of Moomoo milk from my backpack instead. "Barry, what about your Heracross? Is he old enough to drink?"
"Good idea." He presses a button on his belt and Heracross comes out. He sniffs the air with curiosity and his eyes seem to trace Buneary's bottle. I pass him a cider and pop open one for myself.
Barry takes a sip from his beer. "... Tastes better somehow."
It's an acquired taste, Lucas used to say.
My pokemon enjoy their drinks a lot.
Come to think of it, beyond their tastes, I don't really know a lot about my pokemon. I know their strengths and weaknesses, but those aspects aren't unique to them. And I know their current personalities but I have nothing about their past.
What were their lives like before I met them? Do they miss anything?
"Can you hand me another beer?"
"You're done already?"
"Nah man. It's for Lucas."
Oh. "Here."
I put my cider aside and had a beer for myself... Still tastes like ass. "Lucas was right. It does taste better."
"Hm." Barry grunts. He pours the second bottle out on the ground and a few tears soon follow. "I miss him, man. Sniff"
"... Me too, man. Do you think he is buried in Jubilife City?"
"... Maybe."
"... Let's go visit him after I become the champion, alright?"
"... Alri-- Oi!" He rubs at his face. "I'm gonna be the champion this year. We can visit him after I am champion."
"Nuh uh, Barry. You don't train enough. You're never gonna surpass me."
"Pah! You're going to be way too distracted with all your girlfriends to become the champ. Meanwhile, I will train more and more and leave you in the dust. And then, once I'm the champion, girls are going to flock after me instead!"
"Hahaha! They sure are a massive distraction but even so, I'm just going to train twice as hard while I'm not distracted!"
"Hey, pass me one of these ciders. They are supposed to taste better?"
"Hell yeah, they are." I drink the final bit of my disgusting sewage water before popping one open for Barry and returning to my own. "Cheers."
"Cheers."
My pokemon cuddle up with me while sipping from their oversized bottles. They look so adorable that I can't resist petting them.
I notice that Salandit's skin is starting to lose its luster. A few scales are loose here and there. She hasn't had a bath in a while and I can only do so much with regular grooming.
"Hey Salandit, remind me later to give you an acid bath." Now it's not a surprise anymore, but I kept forgetting and never found the right moment for it. With a second brain on the task, I'm sure we won't forget it.
Her eyes light up in excitement at the promise of some special treatment just for herself. Then her empty bottle clangs to the ground as she pounces on me, attacking me with licks and scratching my chest and shoulders in the process.
"Haha! Settle down!"
She clings on to me, even while I pull her off. Only more petting calms her down enough to finally retract her claws from my skin.
"Bro. I'm so jealous."
Huh? Jealous of my freaky pokemon? Is he a freak too? "What do you mean exactly?"
"Grotle, come out." He releases his starter from his pokeball and presents him to me. "He's a great fella!"
"Yes?"
"But, like, all he cares about is food and battle. I can't really bond with him as well as you do with your pokemon."
The unusual physical interest that my pokemon have in me, does make bonding a lot easier.
Salandit wants to mate with me. Riolu sees me as her father... Or more. And Buneary? She has become really attached to me.
We did a lot of things together. Everything, really, ever since I caught her.
Except when Lucario died. I shouldn't have let myself get separated from her again. What on earth possessed me to make such an idiotic decision? Leaving Buneary behind? Am I insane?
I'm sure that it is not something I would ever do...
"Have you tried pruning and styling the trees on his back? Maybe young pokemon just don't know what they enjoy yet?"
Did something actually possess me back then? ... Mesprit?
That's... possible.
But why? Just because I went to her lake?
"Like a bonsai?"
"What?"
"Grotle's pruning. Like a bonsai. Because I already do regular pruning for him."
"Oh, right. I remember. You were pruning Turtwig's little sapling back in trainer school already. Then a bonsai is a good idea."
Turtwig used to be a perfect match for Barry... I guess Grotle needs to grow up to keep up with his trainer.
"What else do you do with your pokemon for bonding?"
Don't say foreplay. "For-- Ahem. For bonding? Uhm. Petting, bathing, cuddling, I always let them stay outside their pokeballs--"
"That helps?"
"Oh yeah. That and eating with them is probably the best thing you can do as a trainer for bonding. And I started brawling with Buneary. It feels like she really fell in love with me right after we started training like that."
Her ears suddenly stand up attentively and a blush shines through her fur somehow.
"... Love?"
... Oh shit. Did I say that out loud?! "Between a trainer and their beloved pokemon. Of course. Haha. What did you think? Haha. Ha."
"Pfft. Yeah. Haha. Of course..."
"Don't worry. I have protection, you know?"
A stream of fizzling cider blasts out of his nose. "What!?"
"Yeah. TM Protect. Akari gave the TM as a dowry."
"Oh, fuck off! You got me with the same shitty joke again!"
"Heh. As long as it works? Won't be the last time either. Get used to it."
Bottle caps fly through the air as I get the next round of cider going.
---
...
...
... Crash
"Woah! Dude! Don't break the door!"
"I'm trying!"
"No, don't try!"
"What?" The door doesn't open. "Dude. How are we supposed to sleep? I need to break the door open."
"... You're right. The beds are inside. Continue breaking."
All of a sudden the door opens on its own and almost hits me in my face! "Woah!"
"Swole? Why were you pushing the door the whole time?"
My beautiful girlfriend has opened the door for me! "Come here." I kiss her but after a while she starts resisting.
"Stop slobbering my face! You're not a pokemon!"
"Dawn? What's going on out there?"
The voice of my other beautiful girlfriend comes from inside the room.
"Hiii!" Dawn screeches cutely after I picked her up and carried her with me in the room.
The room is packed. Zoey relaxes on my bed and on two of the other beds are... "Rock and Ass Catchthem."
A body falls to the ground behind me. Barry is laughing his ash off.
Down says something about putting her dawn, so I toss her on my bed and climb in afterwards.
"Were you guys drinking?"
"Nooo. Right Berry?"
"Absolutely not. We didn't drink anything at all!"
"See?"
"You were drinking!"
"Without us." Zoey amends.
"You guys can barely talk, just how much did you have?"
"Whatever do you mean? I can articulate myself perfectly fine."
"... What?" Dawn isn't smart enough to understand my sophisticated speech. "Stop slurring. You can barely pronounce a word."
"YoU Can bARelY prOnoUNcE a WoRd."
"I don't sound like that!"
Hehe. I kiss her again.
"I think it's time to go to sleep." Dawn says in a deadpan voice. She doesn't seem amused.
"No way! Just as the sun begun its nightly play? The night's still young; In the bed, too soon to lay."
"What? Nope. We're not doing this. Guys! Chop, chop. Into the bathroom with you, Zoey and I need to get dressed for the night."
"Booo! Why do we gotta leave? You're in the minority!"
"Because. We are girls."
"Oh. Right. Later."
Dawn rolls her eyes but all the guys, including me, pick up our sleep-wear and file out into the bathroom.
"Dawn, Swole doesn't have to leave. He's our boyfriend, remember?" Zoey suggests.
I look back. I'm the last to leave for the bathroom. Dawn is still waiting for me to leave but Zoey has her thumb hooked into the waistband of her pants. She is waiting for me to close the door.
Gulp. I could see them in their underwear.
But... "Bros before hoes."
The bathroom door closes behind me and I'm stuck with the boys.
"Bro. Sniff" Barry is close to tears again. "You're a real bro, dude."
"You're going to regret that tomorrow." Brock says.
"Regret what?" Ass asks and my attention wanders off.
My clothes are pretty hard to get out of for some reason and the walls are spinning.
... Especially that one set of tiles. It's like looking at one of these optical illusions-things. The lines are all twisted, like in a whirlpool.
Yuck. It's making my head ache and it turns my stomach.
Actually-- "Guys, step back from the toilet! Quick!"
Pukes
"Iew. Gross!"
"And that's why drinking is bad." Brock lectures and Ash nods in understanding.
"Urgh... It wasn't the alcohol. I'm not a lightweight. You see that thing?"
They look at where I'm pointing. The weird swirling pattern of bathroom tiles. Everywhere else, the tile-seams run parallel to each other, except there. They twist and turn... I'm getting a little dizzy again.
Pukes
"Gross, Barry."
"Fuck off, Swole. What the fuck is that?"
"No idea. And I can't look at it without risking puking again. Brock? Ash? What do you think?"
"It's weird. Ouch." Ash grabs his head after staring at it for too long.
Brock quickly looks away and clenches his eyes shut. "Barry, you have one of these phones with a camera on them, right? Can you take a picture?"
"Good idea, Rock!" - "It's Brock!" - "Why didn't I think of that?" - "Because you're drunk. Just take the picture, Barry."
"Alright, alright. Chill man..." He fiddles around with his phone for a very long time. "Weird. I think my camera is broken."
I pull out my own phone and take the picture-- Huh. "You... mean these weird black spots?"
There are pixels missing from the picture. The area that is affected by the twisting contains tiny spots that the camera can't pick up. Almost like bits of TV static.
But I don't get any dizziness from looking at the picture.
That is so absurd.
Knock Knock
"Guys? Are you done in there? You can come out now."
The door opens and Zoey shows herself. She wears red pajamas instead of the nightgown I saw her use when we video called.
She looks at us. A group of men huddled around two phone screens.
Her arms cross. "Really?"
"What?" Barry is confused.
"No more porn for you, mister."
"Porn?" She drags me by my ear back into the bedroom. "Ouch, ouch, ouch! How would we even get porn on our phones? It's all age restricted... Brock? He wouldn't do that for us."
"What else were you looking at?"
"Was he looking at porn again?" Dawn asks while I sit down and lie back on the bed.
"Yes."
"Oi! I wasn't! I was looking at this." I hand them my phone.
"... Abstract art?"
"Nope. It's the bathroom wall. That thing is weird. Anyway, who wants to cuddle?"
I spread out my arms and my tipsy pokemon immediately rushed in to hog the best spots. They are also the only cuddle-partners I really expected.
After all, we are in a shared bedroom with 3 other people. It would be awkward as hell to cuddle with voyeurs all around.
Dawn thinks about it. Her reddened face makes her thoughts obvious.
Zoey on the other hand, "Sure. Glameow, do you want to stay over there or come here?"
Her cat pokemon lifts her head to look at us and then resumes napping on her bed.
"Darn." Zoey complains before she picks up her cat pokemon and lies down next to me. Her head resting on my arm.
---
"What did ya'll think of today?" Zoey asks into the room while my hand makes circles on her arm.
I think she works out. Her arm feels a lot firmer than Dawn's. Her neck and cheek are tantalizingly close so I kiss her before I whisper to her ear.
"Do you work out?"
"Shh. I want to listen to that."
Ash is talking... Wait? Ash? Wasn't he knocked out?
"And then, after I got hit by Darkrai's attack, I had a weird nightmare..."
How did I not notice that he's back?
"In that dream, it was like I was still in the garden but everyone else was gone. Darkrai had done something to the sky. It became dark and... scary? It was like nothing I have ever seen before."
Shudders pass over his body as he remembers his vivid dream.
"And in that sky was an enormous pokemon that I had never seen before! Bigger than a house with evil, red eyes and pink glowing parts. When I tried fighting against it, all my pokeballs just disappeared into thin air. I was powerless to stop it and felt so alone and it just kept going on and on for forever."
Zoey shivers a bit, so I hold her a little tighter.
Ash's skin is pale.
"And then the ground started swallowing me up. It twisted and spiraled like a whirlpool. A lot like that spot in the bathroom actually. I couldn't breathe in there. I... I really thought I was dying until I just woke up."
He holds his Pikachu in a tight embrace.
"That's fucked up." Barry comments. "Why would Darkrai do that to you?"
... "Why would Darkrai do any of this? Is he insane?" I ask while I sneak my fingers to intertwine them with Zoey's fingers.
"What do you mean?"
"It's not like he just appeared here yesterday. Alice's grandmother has seen him... So, he's lived here for 60 years? At least? Why start shit now?"
"Maybe he really did go insane?"
That's... possible. And bad news. "But then what about these weird things we saw? The bathroom wall, the spot in the garden. And the ship in Route 218 too. I think it's all part of the world ending."
"Sometimes I..." Barry begins to say something but stops himself. "Well, I don't blame him for going insane. It's an insane world."
What was he going to say? Was he about to say he himself is going insane? That's--
Zoey suddenly turns her head and kisses me on the lips before she begins to whisper. "I'm so glad you are here."
Dawn is still sitting at the other end of the bed but I can see her seething gazes of jealousy. Or envy? Can't remember. Zoey feels too nice. Brain is too foggy.
What on earth were we talking about?
"Hey, scoot over a little." Dawn whispers. She wants to lie down too, so I make room for her on the other side of my body.
She's so warm...
Covered in girls. This is amazing...
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