Pokemon EoS ~A fable of Thunder and Light~ Ch.3 p1

Being thrown across a room is one thing, being zapped by electricity and then tossed against a wall is another. Diane may scold me here for exaggerating but I’ll be frank, I wasn’t entirely surprised to find myself both paralyzed and knocked out.
I woke to a paw stuffed in my mouth and another pinning me down. Gaggling I reacted on instincts, convulsing in pain as someone tried to stuff a berry down my throat.

“Swallow!” Diane’s voice commanded, bringing me to reality, “You don’t want to be usefully is some dungeon pokemon happens to discover us here!”
Fighting the voices in my mind that screamed at me to bite down on whoever’s paw was jammed down my throat, I managed to force myself to relax and take the berry. Immediately every muscle in my body seemed awake, and I was able to pull myself to my feet.

“See!  Told you it would work!” the skitty chuckled to someone standing out of my line of vision. Confused as to whom she could be speaking to I twirled around to face a strange yellow colored shinx.

“Who’s this?” I grumbled glaring at the shiny shinx who met my gaze with a large grin, “How do we know we can trust him?”
I didn’t feel the need to jump in any attack pose, Diane didn’t seem taken aback by the newcomer’s presence and I could only assume she had the genuine reason.

“First,” my partner meowed stepped away to stand beside the shinx, “Raza is a girl, so it’s a she, and second she saved our butts back there!”

“Really?!” I chocked, forcing down my throat the last bits Cheri berry, it would have seemed very out of place if I accidentally spat some over Raza, “And how is paralysing me saving our butts?!”

“You failed to notice the kabutops!” Raza purred, her previously smirking features now turned to a frown, “If I had even hesitated a second he would have called for reinforcement. And then you would have had to deal with not one dungeon pokemon but three bosses! I am sorry for having zapped you while taking him down, I am not very good at containing my attacks.”

“I’m sure Eon accepts your apology!”  My partner meowed, glancing furtively in my direction, “Don’t you?!”

“Yes!YES!” I growled, sauntering forward to crouch by Diane’s other side, my attention entirely focused on Raza who watched my movement with interest.

“Are you certain this is a good idea? We’re chasing after a bunch of electric type outlaws. How do we know he…I mean she isn’t one of the pokemon we’re looking for?”

“Technically…” Raza chirped, jumping to her feet, her large smile back on her face, “I am one of the pokemon you’re looking for! I am the one who could help you in your task! A few days ago I saw a group of luxrays enter a dungeon dragging an unconscious staraptor with them. I bet that was your guildmaster they had with them!”

“You told her about our mission!!!” I cried, backing away from my partner, my gaze now entirely fixed on her, “Why would you tell an outsider about Axel?!”

The skitty starred back at me, a look of disappointment and shone in her eyes, I couldn’t be sure but it almost seemed as if she was hesitating whether or not to tell me something, “You were knocked out for quite a while. I assure you I know what I am doing when asking Raza for help.”

I still wasn’t convinced, all this seemed for too convenient for my taste, the first dungeon we happen to search just miraculously had a friendly electric type pokemon who just happened to have seen pokemon of the same kind carrying someone who matched the description of our guildmaster. This sound just a little too suspicious and I wouldn’t feel comfortable until I was certain that this shinx was either really telling the truth or was dragging us into a trap. I would need to play along until I was sure of one of the possibilities.

“Come on…” I grumbled, forcing myself to relax and smile as pretended to accept my partner’s affirmation, “Why are we still standing here? Lead the way…huh…Raza! The sooner we find Axel the better!”

 

I really hated acting against my instincts, and frankly if Diane had not been around I would have attacked Raza on spot, even if she was telling the truth.
We continued deeper and deeper into the Murky Marchlands, here the thickets we tightly woven together, making it hard to push your way forward without picking up thorns on the way.
I couldn’t even tell whether or not night had turned to day, it was impossible to keep track of time in this Arceus forsaken place. The trees reached even higher in this part of the swamp, the only thing I’d consider as an advantage was the mud, water was shallower here and therefore we weren’t pushing ourselves onwards. There were even some large clumps of tall grass that lead me to hope that we may have reached the end of the Marchlands.

I can assure you the dungeon was filled with pokemon, but is was unnecessary for me to even raise a helping hand, Raza and Diane swept through the first ten floors in a dangerous combo of shinx and skitty that left any surviving pokemon racing home tail between their legs in tears. I admit having an electric type on our team sure helped a lot when you’re making your way through a water covered dungeon. However I couldn’t help but feel a little left out, and frankly…I was a little bit envious of the newcomer’s strength and my thoughts seemed to automatically drift to Idan, after he’d become a jolteon my brother had turned his back on my parents and their boring ways. The last time we’d spent together had been during a small brother excursion to Lapis Cavern, the place had also been filled with water type pokemon and Idan had taken pride in beating the daylights out of whoever dared stand in his way, leaving the finishing blows for his brother to take…those had been good memories I no longer cherished.

A sudden burst of light brought me back to reality and all I could do was watch in awe as two feline-like pokemon surged forward, lightning and claws unsure, ready to take on a group of seels who happened to stand in their way.

“Why did you do that? Did those pokemon look like they wanted to attack us?” I snapped, stepped over the bodies of two of Diane and Raza’s unconscious victims.

“These are dungeon pokemon!” Raza growled, halting in her track to turn and face me, “What do you expect us to do when faced with a potential enemy? Stand and wait for them to attack first or use our surprise attack advantages?”

“You have never shown any pity like this before Eon!!” my partner meowed retracing her steps to position herself by Raza’s side, “Why are you now acting all defensive over our assailants?”

I admit I wasn’t thinking straight when I blurted out, I began questioning our tactics and just challenging Diane and Raza’s ways aloud, overall I was being useless and delaying the mission. To make up for my errors I will spare everyone the details of this petty argument and just sum it up in a few sentences instead of a paragraph. Raza took charge and was almost acting like a mature young pokemon by breaking Diane and I up from our bickering.

“Will you two just shut up!” she snapped, stepping in-between the skitty and I, “This isn’t helping Axel! Who knows how far those luxrays have gotten while you two were busy fighting over nothing specific!”

“I couldn’t agree more!” Diane hissed, glaring in my direction.

“Oh! So I am speaking nonsense now?!” I barked, “Well I guess you’d both rather I shut my mouth and stay quiet while you two enjoy your peaceful fighting!”

“Let’s go!” Raza growled, trailing behind the skitty with her gaze firmly locked on the path in front of her. Both had been wise when not bothering to reply to my angered attempt to continue arguing.

Thankfully I did not need to keep my mouth shut for too long. The first set of stairs we came across lead right up to floor 13, the end of this dungeon. I may ruefully declare…as the floor number implied this was bound to be someone’s unlucky number…

The clearing was absolutely gigantic, large stone walls reaching high above the treeline. We had definitely reached the edge of the Murky Marchlands. Stepping forwards all three of us couldn’t help but gaze mouths wide in awe at the crystal clear pond that seemed to dominate the place, somehow this perfect looking water source trickled down and became the dungeon’s disgusting swamp. This was almost appalling, but it was the truth and something we had to face with.

“Impossible…” Raza chocked, breaking us from our thoughts, “The scent…it disappeared.”

“How convenient!”   I grumbled turning away from Diane and the now useless shinx, I had the feeling this was going to be a waste of time, I was betting the next thing we knew Raza would turn against us.

“No no NO!!” The thunder type pokemon was freaking out now, her gaze filled with panic as she raced past me and began prowling back and forth along the pond’s edge, ignoring all attempts on the skitty’s part to calm her down, “They’re gone! What will I…no…we do now!”

“Raza! Its fine!” my partner meowed, forcing herself to look calm and purr, I could tell by the glint in her eyes she was worried, “We will find their scent again.”

“You don’t get it!” Raza cried as starred into the water, peering down at her gloomy reflection, “You don’t get it…I need to find these luxrays.”

I had been so tempted then to challenge Raza while she was weak and question her as to why she needed to track them down so badly. My suspicions had put me on my guards, why else would she find needing to track them down important unless she was part of their team? Maybe she was their leader? Or someone important to them?
The only thing preventing me from walking up to the shinx to confront her was the sensation of being watched that sent chills down my spine. I was on full alert and prepared for whatever could be watching us…something neither my partner nor the shiny shinx were aware of.

I didn’t have time to warn my friend, or even open my mouth to call out to Raza who clearly wasn’t paying attention to the looming presence. Even the walls trembled as the pond exploded, and it was then that I regretted my grumpy behaviour. A long tentacle rose from the waters, taking hold of Raza’s front paw, hopeless I could only watch as she opened her mouth to cry out in surprise before she was dragged under the surface.

“Diane!” I yelled racing to my partner’s side, “I am not dreaming right? Did you see that…thing!!?”

“Of course I did!” the skitty hissed in response, posed to attack if another of those limbs emerged from the pond, “Don’t go as far as thinking he’s done yet because he isn’t. Tentacruels are eager hunters.”

“Tentacruels?” I echoed my gaze locked on the surface, “What would one be doing in these waters?”

“Probably got stuck here when he was a tentacool? I don’t know! Be careful of its limbs though, they have poison on them.”

The whole clearing seemed to hold its breath as we waited for our enemy to attack. I was beginning to wonder what had happened to Raza when the ground suddenly shook again. Backing up against the stone wall I watch in horror as water crept up over the edge, slowly engulfing everything on its way up.

“The ground is sinking!” Diane gasped, searching for any sign of what would be causing this new problem.

Glancing upwards I couldn’t help but laugh, my partner was staring at me in shock as I launched myself against the stone wall. Heaving and panting I quickly but carefully began climbing up.

“Are you coming?” I called down at her, pausing on a ledge to stare down at my partner as she gazed wide eyes back at me, “By the looks of it this water won’t be going down! Who knows when the tentacruel will be back but I’m sure I don’t want to be swimming when he does!”

Groaning in reply the skitty sprung into the air, grabbing hold of the cliff’s side as she began to scale the wall if it were a simple trick or dare that she knew she could take on easily if it demanded a lot of effort. Following close behind I tried to imitate her swift moves as Diane made her way to the top. Below us the ground was no longer visible and the water steadily swallowing the rock wall in its path upwards.

Smiling in relief as I joined Diane at the edge of the cliff, I was panting from exhaustion as we peered down, searching for a sign of Raza or our enemy. “Do you think…she’s dead?” I whispered casting a worried glance at my partner.

“I don’t know Eon,” the skitty shrugged, “Everything happened so quickly…maybe she survived? That tentacruel had to hide somewhere before emerging. There may be an underground cavern down there.”
She did have a point, how else would a humongous creature like that hide in a small pond? The water had been crystal clear and we would have easily noticed it when arriving.

“Looks!” Diane cried, breaking me from my thoughts as we watched a small whirlpool form in the center of the expanding pond, “Be prepared, I think he…”

The skitty would have probably finished her sentence by saying he would likely attack any second now, but we were both too occupied backing away from the ledge as a large tentacle wiped out of nowhere in attempt to drag us both down.

I imagine from the point the fight would have begun…the tentacruel would have emerged from the waters and Diane and I would have taken turns jumping to attack him like most boss battles. But let’s not dwell on what could have happened and more on what did happen…at least I can be truthful when saying Raza survived, what I wish was that I could say it went according to plan as soon as she appeared…but there…there I would be lying.

 

 

Right when we thought we’d have to exhaust ourselves fighting the enemy, a sudden burst of lighting rippled through the still rising waters. With a large cry the tentacruel rose from the waters causing large waves to come crashing against the cliff side.

“Sorry for the wait!” Raza laughed as the shinx pulled herself over the edge, dripping wet but grinning, “I couldn’t find a good opportunity to take him on other than when you two were distracting him.”

I would have yelled something sarcastic in reply if the tentacruel hadn’t chosen that instant to recover. Bellowing angrily it crashed against the cliff, water spraying in every direction. Hissing in ager the shinx twirled around to zap him with another shockwave, sadly it would take more than a small attack to paralyse a huge enemy like him. Joining the fight Diane and I took our turns attacking, occasionally I’d use Baton Pass to confuse the tentacruel of our positions but overall it became a monotonous game of attack and defence.

It felt like an eternity of fighting, coordinating our moves to prevent the enemy from targeting anyone specific. Raza did the most damage of us all, her electric power being a distinct advantage in this wet place. Finally the tentacruel let out a painfully shriek, wounded by one of Diane’s moves. Leaping into the air I took advantage of our opponent’s weakest state to use Take Down, hitting my target. The energy sent me flying backwards and into Raza.
Panting we lay on the ground, waiting for a sign that our enemy was still able to battle or had been vanquished.

“It didn’t take that much to bring him down!” the shiny shinx chuckled standing up to shake the water off her fur.

“It was hard enough as it was…” Diane grumbled opening our travel bag to toss and Oran berry in her mouth, “I’m glad we don’t need to deal with him any longer…”

Maybe it was fate’s cruel joke, or just the tentacruel listening in to our conversation and using that last of its life to prove my partner wrong, taking us by surprise…
As soon as Diane had finished speaking a large tentacle rose into the air and came crashing down on the cliff edge. Jumping to my feet I only had a few seconds to scramble backwards as the ground gave away beneath us.

Waiting for the dust and water to settle down I searched the horizon for a sign of Diane and Raza but both skitty and shinx were nowhere to be seen. Racing forward I gasped in terror at the realization that the pond had been covered up by rubble, I couldn’t see any trace of my fellow team mates, let alone the tentacruel, only piles of stone and marks left along the cliff hinted that something had happened here before. Nothing was left of the beautiful but deadly crystal pond…

“Eon??” A soft voice whimpered filling me with hope, “A little help maybe?”

“Where are you?” I called, unsure as to who exactly I was speaking to yet but desperate to find one of the two missing pokemon.

“Hanging on to the cliff you idiot!!” the distinct voice of Raza spat.

Peering over the edge and reacting quickly I reached out my paw to help Raza who was hanging on for dear life a less than a meter below me.
“You’re definitely too far for me to reach!” the shinx hissed, her claws dung into the ground but slowly slipping.

Groaning in reply I straightened up, of course I knew what to do, but wasn’t exactly thrilled at the idea. I didn’t entirely trust Raza yet and she could easily pull me down if she wanted to.
“Hurry please!” the shinx called out pleadingly as se scrambled to keep hold of the tiny rock that kept her from falling to her death.
Sighing I lowered myself over the ledge, my tail dangling down for Raza to grab hold of. Yelping in pain as the shinx bit down on it I hauled both of us up, dragging Raza with me.

“Great…You’re safe…could you bite any harder than that? It really hurt!” I grumbled glaring at her as I gingerly held my throbbing tail.

“Ahhh! I’m sorry.” Came the sarcastic reply.

Huffing in contempt I turned my attention back to the edge, “Could you help me find Diane?” I demanded, direction my tone to sound more as an order than a simple request.
The shinx seemed to hesitate a few seconds before replying, the look in her eyes made my heart sink before she even opened her moth to speak.

“Diane…you probably won’t find her down there Eon…” she meowed her head low not meeting my gaze, “She was…the closest to the edge, if she did survive the fall and rubble she is trapped down there under that water. She’d have no choice to go through the tentacruel’s den to get out…”

I stood in silence, it took me only a few painful moments to register what she had said before grief overtook me.

“NO!” I yelled twirling around to face that pond that was hidden underneath the fallen boulders. I probably would have jumped if Raza had not pinned me down.

“Don’t you dare! If you were in her place you wouldn’t want her to act foolishly to get to you!”

“She’s my partner!” I cried trying my best to struggle out of Raza’s grip, “I can’t just leave her like that!”

“She’s gone Eon!” Raza yelled, digging her claws into my fur, “If she is alive I wish her all the luck there is! I’ve heard rumours of the tentacruels’dens, and I wouldn’t wish it on any pokemon to be trapped down there. Very few have entered the dungeon and exited by the other side…”

Forcing myself to calm down I stopped fighting, sighing in relief the shinx took a careful step away from me. “Where does that dungeon lead to?” I asked, settling my angry gaze on her.

“It’s more a maze really…it has several entrances all over the place. Every year a tentacool will swim up the underground rivers to find an entrance where it will evolve and become its guard. If she does make it through one of the mazes she’ll have to deal with another one of those monsters.”

“I have to help her then!” I growled, switching my gaze from her back to the pile of rocks that now trapped my beloved partner.

Stepping in front of me Raza shook her head sadly, “The entrance is blocked off. I had come close to accidentally swimming in when the tentacruel had dragged me down. Now that the water has risen many places to resurface would be blocked off, it would be suicidal to attempt going in unless you were a good swimmer.”

Suicidal or not any pokemon trapped down there would have no choice but to go that way if they preferred not to drown. Diane would have not given up easily if I were the one stuck down there, and neither would I.

“You don’t get how it is to be in a team!” I snapped, my grief suddenly turning to an anger that just wanted to burst out, “You’ve never travelled with someone like Diane like I have and wouldn’t understand how it feels to lose a partner who you love! For all I know you could be one of those outlaws who captured Axel! You are nothing but a filthy liar who did not bother warning us as you lead us both into a trap!”

My voice echoed along the walls of the pit before us, its words distorted the further down it went. I couldn’t help but immediately regret what I had just said, to look on Raza’s face clearly showed that I was wrong and my words evoke painful memories.

“I’m sorry…” I whimpered, but before I could add anything else I was cut off.

“No…you’re right. I am a liar…I did lie about seeing some luxrays carrying your guildmaster off with them…but I did not mean for this to happen.”

“But why!!?” I demanded, the urge to get angry at her was tempting, but the weight of despair of my loss was stronger, I didn’t have the will to go on arguing.

“I lied about the outlaws…because I needed help taking them down. If you two were to believe there was a chance they had Axel then you would have been willing to help me avenge my family’s death.”

Gazing down at the ground I felt ashamed of myself, I was too quick to judge pokemon properly, “Wha-what happened?” I asked, curiosity clawing its way out. 

The shinx shook her head sadly, “Not much happened really…those luxrays were brutes and enjoyed terrorizing villagers. My grandparents, who were the ones raising me at the time, decided to fight back. Those outlaws had no pity, they did not hesitate one bit to kill them…I’ve been searching to avenge their death ever since…”

I could easily relate to her, I understood how it felt to lose your family to the paws of an outlaw, it wasn’t much of a surprise to learn there were others like my brother out there, “I would be willing to help avenge their death…” I mumbled, “If we find Diane alive I bet she wouldn’t hesitate to help you out.”

“No!” Raza snapped, glaring at me and look of guilt still visible in her eyes, “I was dishonest with you two and I may have cost your partner’s life. I won’t let you risk your mission for a petty quest of revenge. From what I heard you never insisted on dragging Diane to do anything reckless only to satisfy your dreams of vengeance.

I wasn’t going to ask what she knew about me and my hatred towards Idan, I didn’t bother to insist either, Raza did have a point. Besides both Diane and Axel were those we had to concentrate our searches on.

“It’s almost dusk…” the shinx meowed, “You look exhausted…I think we should begin our searches after you’ve had a proper rest…”

Starring out at the never ending landscape behind us I nodded in agreement, a sensation of dread prickling my fur. The area above the Murky Groves was likely to be a part of desert extending from Grassland Plateau to Zubat Cave.

With very little cover and the occasional pits to fall it to it would be considered idiotic to continue in the dark and risk falling to your death, it was safer just to stay here. “Yes…” I replied settling down in the dust, “Let’s rest here for the night.