Continuing from last post
------------------------------------------------------------
She had been searching for possibly an hour, and still no luck. Hyper didn’t know why she was looking for her trainer, but if Swampert told all of them to look for Brendan then it must be pretty bad. Tree after tree she hopped on the search for her trainer, occasionally taking a break to suck on sap every now and then. She wasn’t worried about being attacked by some predator or something, she was pretty strong for a Heracross. She was worried about encountering a pokemon that would fight her to the death.
‘Why is the world like this?’ she said as she nestled onto a tree a punctured it’s bark with her mouth, ‘Why must we eat one another to survive? Can’t we just eat berries? I’m so gonna kill whoever came up with that ‘bug-eat-bug world’ crap.’
She ran as fast as she could.
She didn’t want to become prey at such a young age. It has only been 4 months since she was born. Right now, she was being hunted down by two Fearow’s, each one aiming to drill peck through her shell. Her life was her reason to run, but their reason was for her life, and because they were hungry.
She tripped on a rock that came out of nowhere and fell on the ground hard. She knew the Fearow hoped for a slip-up. She braced herself for a brutal stabbing from the oncoming Fearow’s and wasn’t expecting anyone to save her.
“Yo, big birds of ugliness!” yelled some voice.
She looked up to see a small human-shaped pokemon like a little kid that was blue and white, a Meditite. She thought how stupid the Meditite was trying to stand up to the obviously stronger Fearow.
“Pick on someone your own size!” he yelled.
The two Fearow looked at each other then bursted laughing. The Meditite then jumped in the air and kicked one in the stomach. While the other was recovering from the laughter, the Meditite side-kicked him in the face. The other Fearow got up and tried to stab Meditite with it’s powerful beak, but it jumped in the air and cross chopped it’s neck. The attack had killed the Fearow while the other Fearow saw his friend dead before his eyes. In a fit of rage, the Fearow attacked Meditite, but Meditite assumed a chi gathering signal with it’s hands and a glint appeared in it’s eyes. Before impact, Meditite disappeared and reappeared on top of the Fearow’s head. He grabbed his upper beak and pulled back as far as he could until a loud cracking sound was heard. The Fearow’s head plopped to the ground as the Meditite got off of the carcass and walked over to Heracross.
“You…killed them,” she said in fear.
“Don’t mention it. I should be thanking you…wait, what did you say?”
“How do you live with that?”
Meditite shrugged his shoulders and said, “it’s a bug eat bug world, better do your part, I guess.”
“…”
“Now, if you don’t mind, I’m hungry,” he said as he walked over to the carnage he created.
Heracross didn’t want to be around for whatever he meant by his hunger. She walked away and to a beach where a few trees were planted. She wasn’t hungry, but the scenery was beautiful at least. The sun was still in the sky and no humans were in sight. She soon heard footsteps from behind, very faint footsteps, that would belong to a small pokemon. She turned around to see the Meditite with a few blots of dirt and blood. There was a chunk of meat in his hands which he just finished off.
“Don’t you feel any guilt from eating something else?” she asked.
“A little bit, but you gotta do what you gotta do to survive,” he answered.
“I guess that doesn’t apply to me. All I eat is tree sap,” she said as he walked over and sat by her.
“At least you have it easy, I have to kill for my food,” he said, “and believe me, when someone says they could eat a horse, they could, maybe and or will eat a horse.”
Heracross continued to look at the sea. Another aspect of nature that hides many dangers. Octillery’s eating Clamperl and Krabby, Remoraid’s eating flying Ninjask, Sharpedo’s eating just about anything. She couldn’t believe how brutal the world was, but he was right, you gotta do what you gotta do to survive, just don’t be the prey.
“Well, I’m gonna go take a dip in the ocean,” he aid, getting up, “don’t wanna stay dirty forever, I believe in personal hygiene.”
She watched as he dove into the ocean. What dangers could befall on him in the future? He saved her life, but in this world, she’d be too afraid to repay him. She didn’t know what could happen. Would she survive long enough to know?
“Darn it! Since when was dirt so hard to get rid of?” Meditite said as he tried to scrub off a botch of dirt on his arm.
Heracross noticed something breaching the surface of the water. Black fins with triangles cuts at the side…Sharpedo! Heracross yelled to Meditite that there were Sharpedo in the water until Meditite noticed. However, Meditite only heard Heracross from a distant, so hearing her was a problem. When he saw one of the fins pass him, it took about 2 seconds before he realized the danger he was in. He yelped when a Sharpedo jutted its teeth out and bit Meditite. Heracross watched in horror as Meditite was pulled to the bottom of the sea.
Below the water, the Sharpedo was having a rough time keeping it’s prey in it’s jaw because it kept punching at him. Finally, Meditite’s fist glowed as he punched the Sharpedo so hard, it let him go. Before Meditite was about to swim back to the surface, a whole herd of Sharpedo began to circle him. Seeing that he was totally surrounded, he focused his powers into white spheres and released them in all directions. He swam back to the surface for much needed air.
Meditite lifted himself out of the water, and to Heracross’ relief, still breathing. He turned to Heracross and said to her.
“Hey! Do you know any bug moves!?” he yelled.
Heracross just stood there in horror and fear, not responding to his question at all.
“Come over here and help me! Do you really expect me to fend off all of these guys by myself?”
Unexpectedly, a Sharpedo bit and pulled Meditite’s leg into the ocean. Heracross was frightened that he was going to be eaten, but she couldn’t do anything about it. She didn’t want to die because she tried to save him, but it was the brave thing to do. Meditite was frustrated with the Sharpedo biting his legs, so in an effort to attack all of the Sharpedo at once, he focused his chi into little balls of light around him and shot in all directions, striking all of the Sharpedo in the water. With the shark pokemon momentarily stunned, he swam to the surface to escape from them. When he breached the surface, he saw that the Heracross ran away. Angered, he yelled her name into the sky as the shark pokemon were ready to feed again.
She ran as fast as she could.
If there was anything about survival she knew, one must save themselves by luring the predator away with something of greater value, even if it’s another life. She didn’t want to be a part of that philosophy, so she did the one thing she did best; run. She kept running and running until she saw some light up ahead. Her running soon turned into a walk as she carefully approached the blessing light.
The ruffle of the bushes alerted him of something in the forest. His pokemon jumped out to protect him from the possible enemy. His Marshtomp, Nuzleaf, Lairon, and Natu jumped in front of him as he watched the pokemon walk to them. She walked as if she were tired and hungry and looked like she was weak and defenseless. He saw the innocence and pain in her eyes and told his pokemon to step back. He noticed that this was a Heracross and was small for a Heracross. He approached her with caution as he said.
“Hey there, my name’s Brendan. Are you lost?” he asked.
She saw that he was being careful with her, but her real attention was on his pokemon. That Natu looked to small to try and eat her; that Marshtomp didn’t look so carnivorous; that Lairon seemed to be a loner; that Nuzleaf looked like it wouldn’t cause any trouble with her. She must’ve found her place, a place away from the world. She walked over and hugged the stranger in sadness as she cried onto his chest. The movement was sudden, but he figured this Heracross has been through a lot of pain. He patted her head as he soothed her.
“I guess you’ve been through a lot, haven’t you? Don’t worry, join me and your pain will be over…”
‘He saved me…from this world. I can’t give up looking for him, I owe him so much,’ she thought.
She wasn’t brave enough to face this world. She’d run any day if it saved her life. She was a coward, and she accepted that. But would you be called a coward if you were staring at death in the face? She fears death almost as much as the next person, but in this world, she fears everything. She fights for her life, and that’s good enough of a reason to keep fighting.
“HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!” a maniacal voice that echoed through the trees was heard.
Hyper stopped in her tracks and looked around her surroundings for the source of the voice.
“I’m very, very hungry, but there’s no food in miles. But just now, I’ve found something to eat. Mind joining me for dinner? You’re the main course!” the voice said.
“W-who are you!?” she asked with fear chilling down her spine.
“I’m here and there, near and far,” it said sounding closer with each word, “right behind you,” it said appearing behind Hyper.
At that moment, an invisible force pushed Hyper into a tree. When she fell to the ground after impact, she saw her attacker. He was a slim pokemon with red lips, black eyes, almost-natural human hands, a red cap-like headwear with two small yellow spots and three polyps on a triangular side, red pants-like clothing with thin feet and a yellow spot on each knee. He was a Medicham. This pokemon sent ice-cold fear into her body, because he had a mad look of hunger.
“Well, aren’t you a delicious, defenseless Heracross?” he said.
After she stared into his eyes out of fear, she noticed that the look in his eyes could only belong to one pokemon, a pokemon who wasn’t satisfied with death and hunger.
“You….you’re that mad Meditite I met long ago, aren’t you?” she asked quietly.
“Well, let’s just say I struck a growth spurt,” he said with a hint of evil in his voice.
“Why are you doing this?”
“Didn’t you learn anything when we met? You gotta do what you gotta do to survive, just don’t be the prey,” he said with dark emphasis on the last part.
“But, I’m not your prey.”
“Yes you are! I don’t have to be a bird or a plant, predators are still predators, why are humans so dominant?”
Hyper didn’t know what to do. She was going to be eaten by the least expected pokemon she thought of, and by a pokemon she never knew could eat her. The homicidal malice in his eyes told her he would stop at nothing until his hunger is satisfied. He licked his lips as he advanced towards the horn beetle pokemon.
“You can’t eat me like this,” she said, hoping she wouldn’t have to fight him.
“Of course I can’t. I have to beat you to death before you are soft enough for me to rip your limbs off.”
Well, so much for avoiding a fight, Hyper thought. There was one other law of survival that Hyper conveniently knew. She stood up and faced the Medicham in the eye, to his surprise.
“But, isn’t there another rule of survival your forgetting?” she asked.
“Hmm, now what would that be?” he said, curious.
“If all other tactics of survival fail, then the prey will fight back to the end.”
“Ah, yes. How could I forget such an important rule, especially since I’m the predator?” he said managing the evil tone in his voice.
“Well, I plan on fighting for my life and I won’t hold back,” she said as she braced position.
“A delicious idea, but I won’t stop until my hunger is ceased!” he said also positioning himself, “and this is for running away!” he yelled as he charged toward Hyper.
Hyper knew there was no turning back. She had to fight, and to the death, if she was going to survive. All of the bravery she failed to muster all of her life had breached its point at that moment. She stood her ground as he attempted to ram his fist into her stomach.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
He stared at the sky for what seemed to be an eternity. His blue draconic feathers waded against the wind. The cliff he was levitating on had a view of the whole forest and beyond if anyone was at the top. Latios began to think of his moments with his trainer and try to get his memories back while he was at it. He remembered how it happened, his feelings of failure swept through him because his existence told him. His existence was proof that he failed, and he wasn’t good at existing anymore.
“Okay guys, ready for a day of training?” he told his pokemon.
Each of them gave a cry in assurance as they awaited Brendan’s orders.
“Today, we’ll be doing various exercises. Jogging, push-ups, stretching, all that stuff. You guys ready?”
His pokemon gave another cry of assurance as they gave a positive gesture. He turned around and began running.
“Today’s first exercise is a jog on the beach. Let’s go you guys!” he said as his pokemon began to follow him.
He ran along the beach as his pokemon followed. There were on the shores just off of Mauville city, where the thunder gym leader lived. Most of the trainers on that route watched as his pokemon followed him. His Swampert was jogging on all fours, sometimes resorting to his hind legs as he nobly followed his trainer. His Shiftry, though tough running with his wooden feet, ran with ease along the sand. His Xatu flew at a careful pace to ensure that she flew at the same height above the ground, although specific instructions from her trainer said to ascend and descend at a steady pace, which she resumed doing after reminding herself. His Heracross was to run three seconds steps, fly for three seconds then back on the ground again. His mighty Aggron was to walk, or run if he felt like it, as fast as he could, in order to help his leg muscles to dodge speedy opponents in battle.
Their jogging route directed into an uncharted beach where the team was stills jogging. After about 3 hours of their nonstop exercise, Brendan decided to have a little break.
“Okay guys, I think that’s enough jogging,” he said as he wiped his brow of sweat and watch his pokemon pant, sweat, and faint, “who wants lunch?”
After having a delicious lunch served by their trainer, the pokemon prepared for another workout by either resting or warm-up exercises. Blackheart decided to walk around a bit before beginning another exercise; he was curious of the rest of the beach.
“I didn’t know birds sleep on their backs,” he heard Swampert say.
“Shut up,” was the response from Winged Neo, who Blackheart guessed was exhausted from the 3 hour flight.
He walked off to a shore where the tide was beginning to settle in. the water was just inches away from the rocks that acted as a wall on the beach. He kept walking curious of what the rest of the beach looked like; of course there was a possibility of him walking until he circled the whole continent. He heard weakened cries of pain coming from ahead that sounded like a wounded dragon. Blackheart walked a bit faster wondering what the creature that made the sound was. Soon, he came upon a blue and white dragon, completely immobile, although still breathing. Surprised and not knowing what to do, he ran back to the lunch area where everyone was eating to tell his trainer of the mysterious pokemon.
“Brendan! Brendan!” he yelled as he waved his leaf fans in the air.
Brendan looked up from his kettle to see Blackheart waving at him like an idiot.
“What is it?” he asked.
“Brendan, you’re not gonna believe this,” he said panting more than he did.
“What could there be that I find unbelievable?” he asked.
“Just come here! Everyone!” he said turning to the fainted pokemon on the sand, “you’ve gotta come see this!”
He led them all to the same path he took. Eager to show what he found, he practically ran ahead forcing the other pokemon to keep up. After about ten minutes of running, everyone soon saw what Blackheart was so worked up about. Lying there immobile, was a blue legendary dragon, with jet wings, forearms, feather-like legs, and a hollow red triangle on its chest. The legendary was bruised with cuts and was bleeding terribly; there wasn’t a square inch on the pokemon’s body that wasn’t blood-riddled.
“Oh…my god…” the pokemon exclaimed.
Brendan cautiously took out his pokedex and waited as the pokedex gave his information.
Latios, the eon pokemon.
Even in hiding, it can detect the locations of others and sense their emotions since it has telepathy. Its intelligence allows it to understand other human languages. They and other Latias make a small herd of only several members. They rarely make contact with people or other pokemon. They disappear if they sense enemies.
‘Did this one lose its way from its herd?’ he thought as he closed the pokedex, ‘it’s too beaten up. No way could it be lost. Was it in a battle?’
He slowly walked over to the hurt pokemon and tenderly touched the Eon. Reacting to the contact like chemicals, the Eon opened its eyes and shot up trying to fly away. It pushed itself off the ground using its forearms and tried to fly away. The pokemon were surprised by the sudden action as they watched the Eon trying to fly away to the ocean. They watched it float off the ground then hit it over and over again. When Brendan realized it would drown into the sea if it tried to fly over it he tried to stop the Latios from flying at all.
“Guys, help me keep it grounded!” he yelled.
“You heard the boss!” Swampert yelled as he ran to assist his trainer.
Heracross, Swampert and Titanium tried to push it onto the ground, Shiftry pushed the Eon away from the sea and Xatu was helping everyone with her psychic force. The Eon yelled as he tried to escape the clustering pokemon around him. He swung his claws back and forth in fear, one of which had accidentally clawed Swampert in the face. Ticked off, Swampert retaliated.
“Oh, that is it!” he said as he punched Latios onto the ground, knocking it out of its struggle as the pokemon took a second to realize what he just did.
Latios was knocked out cold. He couldn’t remember what happened after that instant. He woke up a couple of hours later inside a Pokemon Center where the moon was shining through the glass window. He had a blanket covering his whole body from his neck to his jet-wings. Beside him was a white haired trainer looking through his pokedex.
“Where am I?” he thought into the trainer’s mind.
“You’re in a Pokemon Center, where pokemon come to get healed. You were a bit of a handle, but we managed to get you inside,” he answered.
Latios looked to a ball glistening on a drawer that was white, lined with black, and decorated with red triangles.
“What is that?” he asked.
“That’s your pokeball. See, in order for pokemon to be healed, they must be owned by a trainer,” he explained.
“Did, you say, owned by a trainer?”
“Yeah. You’re mine now Latios, it was for your own good,” he said maintaining his cool.
“Wait, did I do it?”
Brendan cocked his head in confusion, not knowing what the Eon was talking about.
“Do what?”
“No, I couldn’t have failed,” Brendan felt that the Eon was beginning to talk to himself, “Latias, the Soul Dew, Alto Mare, are they…still there?”
Brendan couldn’t answer; mostly because he didn’t know how. He had never heard of Alto Mare or the Soul Dew. If there was any answer he could give without disappointing him, it was no answer at all.
“……”
“…no. I must’ve failed,” he began, “To save Alto Mare, I had to sacrifice myself. Because I am still alive, I must’ve failed. I failed everything, I failed Alto Mare! I failed Latias!”
Latios broke down in tears as Brendan helplessly watches the Eon mope. If he wanted to give some comfort of any kind, it was a trusted movement of the hand. Brendan placed his hand on the Eon’s neck and moved it back and forth in a comforting motion. Latios noticed the touch, so he took in the comfort he was feeling from this mysterious trainer.
“Listen, just because you failed something doesn’t mean you should always cry about it. If it’s a small failure, don’t even bother crying. If it’s a big failure, it’s okay to let it out, but not so much. You don’t want to end up crying your whole life. Don’t let it get to you. You’ve got your whole life ahead of you. Live it to its fullest.”
Latios wiped a tear away from his eye as he looked at the trainer in the eye.
“But, Alto Mare…”
“Look, I’ve never heard of Alto Mare, but even though it may be gone forever doesn’t mean you should mope about it that much.”
“How can you say that? There was a whole civilization there that I failed to protect!” Latios said.
“So? Atlantis is gone and you don’t see people crying about it. Same thing goes for Pompeii and the Wooly Mammoths. This was history, and all history is let by as the future makes its way to us. You have to let go of the past to make way for the future.”
Latios carefully took this all in as Brendan watched his words work. He was right. He failed, but it’s history now. But he was connected to it like father and son. But how could he let go of something he lived in for all of his life after failing to protect it? The answer wasn’t the clear, but he was right about one thing; let go of the past so he could see the future.
“What is your name?” he asked.
“Brendan.”
“Brendan, your words helped me see the truth that I was blinded from. Although it will take time for me to accept my failure and move on, I thank you. Therefore, I wish to make my life by being your trusted pokemon.”
“You mean you’re…” Brendan said not believing his words.
“I’m willing to accept you as my trainer. You have helped me, so I want to help you.”
“Wow Latios, I was planning on letting you go, but if you insist…”
“I’ll be willing to fight for you, to the death if I must.”
“Let’s not get carried away there. Latios, I’m glad you’re willing to let me be your master. So as your master, I want you to help me.”
“In what?”
“I’m going to compete against the Elite 4, four of the toughest trainer in all of Hoenn holding pokemon trained to be strong from scratch. Me and my pokemon are confident that we will prevail, but we need one more pokemon, a strong pokemon, almost as strong as my Swampert…”
“Me?”
“Yes.”
“Very well. I’ll fight for you against this Elite 4, and I promise I’ll make you proud.”
“You’ve made me proud enough already,” he said with a smirk itching on his face.
‘...that was how I met Brendan,’ Latios thought.
Brendan managed to save him from a life of sadness and mourn. He was more than happy that he was owned by a great trainer such as Brendan, but he might be even happier if he knew what really happened to Alto Mare. Until then, he’ll continue to dream and wonder what could’ve been, even though he may never know the answer...
“Are you the great Latios?” came a voice from below.
He looked below to see a green dragonfly-like pokemon with red bug-like eyes and a tail striped green and dark green. Latios was curious of what the pokemon wanted, but didn’t feel like connecting with another pokemon. However, this pokemon seemed really anxious to meet him, so he hovered off of the cliff and onto the ground next to the pokemon. Upon closer inspection, Latios saw that it was a Flygon, a popular dragon pokemon bearing the ground type trait.
“Yeah, I’m Latios, what do you want?” he asked.
“I’ve come for my salvations.”
“Salvations?”
“Oh, my bad, I mean blessings.”
“Blessings?”
Latios didn’t know what this pokemon was talking about. Blessing? Did the Flygon think he was some sort of god? He knew how powerful Flygon could get, so he had to be very careful with this.
“I have no freaking idea what you’re talking about.”
“You mean, you don’t remember?” it said in disappointment, “I saved you from dying!”
“Saved? Dying? Sorry, but you didn’t do that, my trainer did.”
“I found you on the beach all bruised up and bleeding! I healed you with all the healing techniques I knew! I dragged you as far from the desert as I could!” it said with it’s anger reaching a dangerous level.
“Huh?” now Latios was really confused.
“When I was a Vibrava, I found you near the edge of the desert. I gave you all the berries I had and dragged you to the nearest beach!”
“But how did you do that without getting seen by people? To get to the beach nearest to the desert, you’d have to cross a town full of-”
“That’s not the point! I thought if I saved you, you’d give me blessings of power like no other!”
“So you only saved me for the power I could give you? I’m sorry, but I cannot give you access to that power. I won’t even give you a portion of my soul.”
“But I saved you from death!”
“You should’ve just left me there then,” he said as he floated back to the cliff.
As he floated toward the cliff, an inhaling sound was heard from behind. Soon, a loud exhaling sound was heard, followed by the blast of hot flames that struck Latios hard and painfully. The flames crackled with a sort of electricity meaning that the fire was draconic. He looked back to see the flames seep out of the Flygon mouth.
“If you won’t give me power, then I won’t need it if I can defeat you!” she yelled.
“Wait, first you prayed for power from me now you’re aiming to kill me? Not very picky, aren’t you?” he said.
“Be quiet! I wanted power from the most powerful dragon in the world…”
“You know I’m not the-”
“I said shut up! …but it turns out my efforts were in vain. If you won’t give me power, then I’ll keep fighting you to the death until you give me power or if I have proven myself more powerful than you.”
“And how will you come to the second conclusion?”
“When I kill you!”
“Hmm, death? Or give power to him?”
“I’m a girl!” she said out loud.
“Well, I don’t think I can give other pokemon power, and I’m sure as hell I don’t wanna die…”
“Then I have no choice. Have at ye!” she yelled as she flew towards the Eon.
‘Crap! What have I gotten myself into? I don’t wanna fight, but I don’t wanna die! But there’s no other choice, I must fight back. I wonder if my companions are having this much trouble? I’m pretty sure Swampert is okay…’
------------------------------------------------------------
He slammed against the tree and fell to the ground. He was tired and battle-scarred; he couldn’t be losing! He looked up to see his opponent who had been pulverizing him for the past hour. He was a green dragon-like pokemon with yellow eyes, yellow polyps on his back, a tail that looked like a leafy bush, and two sickle-like, green glowing blades on each of his wrists. He was the toughest opponent he has ever faced. Sceptile.
“What’s the matter Swampert? I thought we were supposed to be equal,” he said looking at the scars the mud fish was covered with while he only had a few.
“I have no reason to fight you,” he said through his teeth maintaining his anger.
“Our trainers are mortal enemies; he hates him, I hate you. We fight to the death.”
“But it’s not like our trainers will fight to the death.”
“That is where you are wrong. As of now, our trainers will meet and the final confrontation will begin there.”
“You mean…”
“Yes. Only one will survive.”
“You’ll never get away with this. My friends will help him!”
“That is where you are wrong once more. As of now, my companions are dealing with them, one by one by one,” he said with an evil chuckle.
“No…it can’t be!”
“Face it Swampert. You, your friends, and your trainer were destined to die by our hands! Today is the day he’s gonna end it! Today…” he said as he finished the last sentenced with an evil laughter.
Today was the greenest day of all. Each pokemon are now reliving their suffering from long ago. They need help, but they won’t be getting any. But no matter how you see it, no matter how much each pokemon has suffered, no matter how much they all suffered all together, it will never equal to Brendan’s true suffering. It would never equal to Brendan’s struggle…
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Hmmm, a homicidal Medicham, a hypocritic Sceptile, a heart-broken Crawdaunt, a revenge seeking Skarmory, a power hungry Flygon, and a very very ****** Armaldo. hmm...
