I did not procrastinate on TBTB! It's not true! It's bullcrap! I did not procrastinate! I did naaaht. Oh hi, SPPF.
Yep, I seem to be getting back on track with my "One chapter per two months" routine! Well, not that it's very good in itself, but it's still a lot better than once per year I suppose.
Be warned as this chapter contains swearing and violence. That being said, here's Chapter Twelve!
Chapter Twelve: Fools' Gold
"C'mon! Keep runnin'!"
"I… I'm gettin' tired…"
"I know! Just push it for a little longer!"
The sound of leaves and pine needles crunching beneath their feet dominated everything that Folly was hearing for the past thirty minutes. He didn't know where he was anymore, but he wasn't sure Trudly did either. Ever since they left the Lab, the only destination was, "away".
Folly fully expected having to do this at some point during the night. Neither he nor Trudly were about to let themselves get thrown into jail that easily. However, he didn't quite expect what happened at the Lab to be their escape method.
Although he was sure that escape wasn't the first thing on Trudlys' mind when he punched that officer out. Not that Folly was complaining that Trudly was being protective as usual. Back at the Lab, the officer that was interrogating them had gotten far too close to Folly for his own comfort. Folly couldn't stand it when people got within arms reach of him and broke his sense of personal space. As close as that officer had gotten, any closer would have thrown Folly into a complete panic. And if Trudly hadn't punched him when he did, that was exactly would have happened. It did provide a way for the two to escape, but Folly was certain that wasn't Trudlys' intent.
He couldn't stop. Folly couldn't be the reason that they would get caught. Trudly had already slowed down considerably from his usual speed because of him; Folly couldn't slow him down even more.
But his leg… his left leg had been throbbing for the past few minutes. He was forcing it to move despite it feeling like someone was constantly pounding it with a hammer. Folly tried gritting his teeth and pushing forward, but he soon found out that he just wasn't that strong-willed.
The night was cool, but Follys' face was soaked with sweat. His breathing was heavy and ragged as he began to drag his leg behind him. He clamped his eyes shut and was finally forced to relent to the searing pain.
He released the shout that he had been holding in and stumbled over to the nearest tree. He slid down to the ground and propped himself against the trunk. "Tr…Trudly… I can't… I can't run anymore…"
When Folly managed to pry his eyes open, he saw Trudly walk towards him. Even though he was in such a hurry just a few minutes prior, he didn't seem angry or impatient. "It's alright. We got pretty far; ya did a good job."
The two of them remained silent as Folly rested. Trudly didn't sit down and instead opted to stay on his feet. He seemed to be scanning the forest, cautiously watching for any threats.
After quite some time had passed, Trudly moved from his position. He walked behind the tree that Folly was sitting at. Folly tried to see what Trudly was doing, but he couldn't turn his head far enough. Eventually Trudly came back within sight and knelt down next to him. He held in his hand a tall stick, reaching up to his shoulder. He spoke up, albeit quietly, "How are ya feelin'? Can ya move?"
Folly immediately caught what Trudly meant; he wanted to keep moving. He wasn't too thrilled about that prospect. His leg wasn't in pain as much as it was earlier, but it was still stinging and Folly didn't feel confident putting pressure on it.
But Folly thought about it. If he said no, what would happen? What if they got caught? It would be his entire fault. How could he live with that? He was already a big enough burden to Trudly and he didn't want to make it even worse.
With those thoughts in his mind, Folly just couldn't disappoint Trudly. He tried to force himself to have more resolve, and took a hold of the stick. He stood it up straight as he used it to pull himself up. His arms shook as his legs wobbled and struggled to get his footing. Once he managed to stand -albeit in an unsteady manner- he shifted the stick over to his left side. Folly slowly lifted his leg up and tried to use the stick as a temporary substitute.
It took a little while to get used to it, but Folly eventually adapted himself to walk with the stick. It was still rather uncomfortable, having to hobble around with his leg folded up; he didn't think he would be able to walk like that for too long.
"Take it slow, and if ya start to get tired, tell me." Trudly calmly told Folly as he himself began to get ready to move.
Folly tried to move along with Trudly, but still found himself unsteady and struggling to keep himself standing. As he quivered while trying to walk, he saw Trudly make a motion with his hand, like he was about to reach out to Folly. Folly was well aware that he was just trying to help, but he still couldn't help but tense up as his hand came closer. Trudly saw this, quickly withdrawing his arm the moment he noticed discomfort growing in Folly.
Folly heard a small sigh come from Trudly as he turned back into the direction they were originally heading in, "Try to look for somewhere we can hide for the night. I don't wanna be out in the open with a bunch of cops lookin' for us."
Folly's leg wasn't burning up like before, but it still stung enough to make him cringe every few minutes. Nevertheless, he tried to fight the pain back and mask it from showing up in his expressions. He managed to bring forth a weak smile and a raspy laugh, "I think you're givin' 'em too much credit…"
Trudly turned his head towards Folly, where he could see a smile forming on his face as well. It was weak like Follys', but still somewhat stronger and accompanied by a small chuckle, "Probably."
With that, Trudly began to press forward, with Folly trailing behind. Folly staggered for a bit, moving as fast as he could with a crutch, as well as to keep within his limits. Trudly took notice and eventually slowed down enough so that they were only a few inches short of standing side by side.
At such a slow pace, it became apparent that the level of urgency that the two of them felt had died down. Regardless, their senses were still heightened. They knew better than to let their guard down, especially when they knew that someone was likely looking for them. This wasn't the first time they had been in this kind of situation, and had developed a permanent sense of apprehension as a result. They watched every movement in the woods intently, and their heads swiveled at the slightest sound.
Folly kept his guard up just as much as Trudly, but he also diverted a small bit of his attention to anything that he could perceive as shelter. He kept an eye out for anything, whether it was a tree with low-hanging branches, an abandoned bridge, or even a bunch of large bushes. Folly constantly looked to both his left and right, searching for such a place to stay. At one point, he glanced through the trees and caught a glimpse of something. He wasn't quite sure what it was, but when he stared at it and took a harder look, he could almost make out the wooden side of a house.
"Trudly!" He whispered quiet enough not to alert anybody following them, but still loud enough to grab Trudlys' attention. Once Trudly turned around, he pointed his finger in the direction of the wall. Trudly stared at it for much longer than Folly did earlier, a little unsure. A bit apprehensive, Trudly walked past Folly and made a wide turn, giving the house plenty of distance. He slowly approached the house while remaining concealed by the trees. Trudly held up his hand slightly with his index finger sticking out and pulled it towards him repeatedly, motioning for Folly to come closer.
They ran from tree to tree, gradually getting closer without letting anybody that was possibly nearby see them. Eventually, they reached the last line of trees where the boundary of the clearing stood. Both of them peered from behind the trees they were using to hide behind. Folly got a better look at the house; he saw that the place had fallen into disrepair. The spots of grass that managed to grow among the several bare spots had grown waist-high, as if it hadn't been cut in a long time. Several shingles on the roof had fallen off, and a few planks on the walls were split and broken. The windows were cracked and had several gaps. The glass that still remained was dirty, making it futile to try to look through them. Every little detail about the house wasn't even trying to hide its vacancy; it was just so obvious to Folly that no one had lived there in a long time.
Still, Trudly was cautious about the whole thing. He held his palm to Folly, telling him to stay put for the moment. Folly watched Trudly inch up to the house, heading first towards one of the walls. He edged along the side and sneaked up to one of the windows. Trudly only revealed a small portion of his face as he peeked inside the building through one of the gaps in the glass. He moved from that spot after a while and then slowly approached the door. The door was already partially unhinged, so Trudly didn't have to put in much effort to be able to see inside.
After a while, Folly saw Trudly turn around to face him, not bothering with stealth anymore. "Ya can come over here, now! It's abandoned!"
Folly thought as much, but he was still glad to finally be able to let go of the anxiousness he had all night. Relieved at the promise of rest, he hobbled over to Trudly and the front door of the house. Trudly opened the door the rest of the way, nearly causing it to completely break off, and entered after Folly went through.
The inside wasn't much better than the exterior. It was a single-room house, but it was still absurdly small. Not a single piece of furniture or anything that suggested previous human habitation was present. The very first step that Folly took caused dust to fly up into the air and eventually in his face. Worse, his movements caused the floor to squeak loudly, as if it about to collapse at any given moment. The only thing the house was missing was an infestation of small Pokémon; which Folly had to admit, was one of the few pros of living in Orre. Regardless, there was nothing about the house that made Folly feel comfortable. For his own safety, he deeply hoped that this would be the first and only time they stayed there.
Trudly was apparently thinking the same thing, as he scanned the room with an unimpressed look on his face. They were used to dirty environments and abandoned buildings, but that didn't mean they had to like it. He huffed, not too pleased with what they were stuck with, "Looks like nobody's lived here for ages."
More dust shot up into Follys' face as he walked further. Sneezing several times as the dust irritated his nose, Folly moaned in response, "I guess…"
While Folly still wasn't too thrilled with the fact that the house felt like it was going to topple over at any moment, it was still a roof over their heads. He forced himself to ignore all of the massive shortcomings the house had and instead was glad that he could take it easy for a little while.
Finally being able to rest came as a great comfort to him. The moment he reached the middle of the room, he slowly lowered himself to the floor, threw aside the walking stick, and laid on the floor. The bare floor wasn't very relaxing, nor was the layers of dust directly making contact with his skin, but he was simply too exhausted to care. With all that had happened in the past few hours, it didn't take long for him to drift off at all.
* * *
It was dark.
There was nothing; nothing all around him. He couldn't see a thing. There was just an empty, endless void in front of him. Folly held his hands out, but they were completely invisible. He could feel them and he could feel the rest of his body, but the darkness swallowed up any visual evidence that he was even there. There seemed to be no choice, no other option. He was forced to wander aimlessly, not knowing where he was or where he was going.
The absence of sight allowed him to dwell on the things that weren't physical, mainly his emotions, which were dominated by fear. It was always there, but the blackness only amplified it. Darkness brought terror, and it also brought coldness. He wrapped his arms around himself, trying to quell his shivering. He searched the blank horizon desperately for even the slightest bit of light.
Suddenly, he found that his hopes were granted, but in the oddest way. His entire body became illuminated. Folly held out his hands again and could see them in full detail this time. He looked himself over and saw that the rest of his body was fully visible again.
But he seemed to be the only thing he could see. He searched the surrounding area again, and still found nothing. Even the ground right at Follys' feet was black and featureless. Folly lifted his head and looked above; there was no light source or anything shining above him. He was just one visible feature with a black background.
It didn't put Folly at ease at the slightest. He took a deep, quivering breath, and continued to press forward. He still searched for something or somewhere he could see. But as the time passed with no results, his sense of hope was becoming invisible as well.
You're lost.
Folly froze. That voice… that voice echoed in the inky darkness and resonated in his head. He recognized it. He was already scared, but that sound took a hold of any ounce of fear in him that had adamantly refused to show itself, yanked it out, and then firmly placed it in his face. The trembling only intensified and his breath grew even shallower. His first instinct was to lock up all together, but the terror forcing its way through him caused him to switch his second instinct. He forced himself to move, against everything else in his mind and body trying otherwise. His quickened his pace, at the same time spinning around frantically and desperately trying to locate the source of the voice.
He couldn't find it.
You're lost.
But it was still there.
The voice hissed at him, it's dark tone whispering vile words about its intent. Hatred, anger, bloodlust… it was all present, and all of it caused Follys' instincts to scream in response, urging their holder to do one thing: escape.
Without another thought or inkling of hesitation, his fast walking transformed into a full-blown sprint. He ran blindly in the opposite direction of where he heard the voice. His mind locked onto that one command to run. He didn't look back and he didn't slow down; he just ran as fast as his body would allow before it would collapse altogether. He had to fight the fear, lest he wanted more to spawn from the darkness as a result of slowing down. He could never stop, no matter how tired he grew.
Nowhere to run.
He clamped his eyes shut. His legs began to move even faster.
Nowhere to hide.
Folly broke out into a cold sweat. His entire body shook at both the icy atmosphere and voice. His panting quickly transformed into desperate, terrified cries.
Suddenly and without any warning, he felt his entire body stop against his will. He tried to move, but it was of no use. He could feel something wrap around him, gripping him tightly. Folly felt the crushing presence throw all of his senses into a panic. His breath grew even more erratic, his sight became disoriented, and every pore of his body felt like it was being stabbed solely by the feel of the monstrous aura.
It was all so familiar. And that was what terrified him the most.
His mind, already in pieces from the dread he felt, shattered even further. He didn't care where he was, or how he got there. The strangeness and oddities of his surroundings was of no concern to him anymore. All that he could see and think about was pure fear. His actions became wild and uncontrollable, impervious to any sense of reason or thought. Folly screeched and flung his fists madly. He bit, kicked, punched, and did everything his instincts and body would allow him. "NO! NO! STOP!"
None of it did any good.
You're weak.
The presence gripped him even tighter as it lifted Folly up in the air. He flailed and struggled even more, not even thinking about how useless it was. He knew what was coming. He tried to do anything he could to stop it. But that small glimmer of conscious thought buried in his panic told him that there was nothing he could do.
The presence pulled back swiftly and then swung forward, letting go of Folly. He was hurled across the landscape before smashing into the ground. He could feel the force of the impact shoot through his body, cracking and destroying any bone it could find. As his insides took the blow as well, he felt a gob of blood make its way through his throat before forcing him to cough it out, causing it to splatter all over the ground. The burning, scathing pain was too much to bear; he couldn't move. He lay there motionless and limp. Part of him wanted to clench his fists, grit his teeth, and cry out to the black sky, all in an attempt to ease the pain. There was no physical ability to command his body, nor was there any will too.
Suddenly, amidst the searing pain, he felt something splash on him. It felt almost like… raindrops. It managed to pull him out of the dim, feeble state he was in somewhat. He gathered up what he could salvage of any strength he had left, and shakily stretched out his bruised hand. Holding it in place was a chore in itself, and once he managed to catch a drop, he pulled it back within his blurry eyesight.
The drop was red.
You're worthless.
Folly had no time to react. The presence, still invisible and indescribable, slammed into Folly, grinding him into the ground. The enormous pressure stomped onto him, causing another massive surge of pain. His already broken bones shattered even further, and his insides felt like they were close to rupturing. His entire body was on the brink of completely breaking. The blood welled up in his mouth again, this time at greater frequencies and amount. The moment the blood from his mouth hit the ground more drops fell from the sky.
He tried, desperately, to hold onto that bit of will that he found earlier. But it was nowhere near enough to do any good. It was hopeless. Nothing he could do meant anything. Everything he did was fruitless. That small part of him attempted to deny it even further, despite the rest of him knowing better. He opened up his reddened mouth again and pulled out every last ounce of strength he could muster. "STOP! STOP!"
Another impact came, along with another series of raindrops.
"HELP! SOMEBODY!"
No one is going to help you…
The presence lifted Follys' broken and limp body again, and then threw him back against the ground.
…because no one cares about you.
The impact came again.
"ENOUGH! PLEASE!"
And again.
"NO MORE! STOP!"
And again.
"STOP!"
It began to pour.
Why aren't you dead yet?
"I DON'T WANT TO DIE! HELP ME!"
Folly!
A voice… A voice, different and free of malice, suddenly pierced through the darkness. It reached Folly briefly, silencing his shouts. But it was only for a brief moment, as the voice was quickly drowned out by his shrieks.
"STOP IT! GO AWAY! PLEASE! EN-"
* * *
"-OUGH! NO! NO MORE! NO MORE!"
"Folly! Folly!"
Follys' eyes jolted open and his screaming stopped. He caught a brief glimpse of his surroundings, which was much different than the one he in was in just a few moments ago. He saw the splintered, creaky floors and walls of the house, and the moonlight peaking through the broken windows. For that slight moment, there was an air of calmness, with the only sound being his breath.
But then those previous images and senses flashed through his mind. He shut his eyes, yet he could see it all again; it was as if he actually there once more. The darkness, the rain, and the presence… He could see himself, limp and barely holding onto life, awaiting the next round and begging for mercy.
The silence was once again broken thoroughly with Follys' blood-curdling screams. His hands made their way to his shaking head, where his nails started to dig into his scalp. He feared pain so much, but at the same time he inflicted it on himself. Every image of what he just experienced was seared into his head, mocking him by throwing themselves right before his eyes. He just wanted to reach into the depths of his mind and tear those memories apart and make it all go away. His frantic efforts to forget caused him to thrash around, completely blind to what was around him. "PLEASE, NO! GO AWAY! STOP!"
"Folly! It's not real! Calm down!"
That voice… It reached him once again. This time, it pulled him back into reality enough for him to recognize the source. He grew quiet once more, and forced his eyes open. When his vision came into focus, he saw Trudly sitting in front of him. Folly realized it now; the voice he heard earlier was Trudly, using his own desperate cries to call Folly and snap him out of his bouts of insanity. Trudlys' voice was loud enough for Folly to hear him over his own manic screams. But there was that tone of patience and concern in his pleas that began to disintegrate Follys' panic from the core.
Folly's heart was still pounding and his breathing was still rapid, but his yelling ceased. He let out a few trembling groans as he tried to block those images from slipping back into his mind. As those images would try to push further at him, the urge to scream came back, but the encouragement and softness he heard earlier gave him the extra resolve to fight back.
"That's it… That's it… It's okay. It was just a bad dream. You're gonna be okay." Trudly calmly and gently whispered to Folly, persuading him to settle down.
Trudlys' mere words were having an astonishing effect on Follys' behavior. His heavy breathing eased and the thrashing stopped. Earlier his body was shivering from the chills that the darkness dealt him, but now he felt his body feel somewhat warm and less tense. He was starting to become more aware of what was around him, instead of being grounded in his nightmare. The images were still there, but they were pushed into the back of his mind instead of threatening to dominate his thoughts. Just a few minutes ago, Folly felt that he was hanging by a very thin thread. Now Trudly had taken that thread and pulled Folly back into reality.
He now realized that the nightmare he was experiencing wasn't real. But he couldn't help but reflect and dwell on it, which reminded him of things that were real. He tried to block much more vivid memories from appearing in his head, but his attempts to so caused his negative emotions over the matter to show themselves. Folly felt his eyelashes catch the teardrops beginning to well up as he blinked. He had used up what little will and strength he had just to ward off his nightmare, and there wasn't any left to prevent him from crying. After countless nights with the same exact situation, Folly didn't even try to stop himself anymore.
Folly pulled his legs in and buried his head in his arms as they sat on his knees. The tears fell freely, without any restraint whatsoever. He couldn't help it anymore; he couldn't help but cry nor become completely terrified even after the nightmare was over. Fears both rational and irrational were able to overcome him very easily. While in reality he knew that he was safe for the moment, his warped and horrified inner thoughts told him otherwise.
The sobbing went on for quite some time. He didn't know exactly for how long, but he knew that a while passed before he finally settled down. Folly had plenty of time to reflect on the matter that was for certain. He shoved the thoughts that frightened him away, and instead focused on his own actions. He knew he was weak. It didn't take much to scare him, crying was absurdly easy, and he was always burdening Trudly with his problems. He was so susceptible to nightmares where he woke up screaming in the middle of the night, that he couldn't even give an accurate estimate of how many he has had. He hated it. He hated being worthless, and he hated being scared. But Follys' attempts to change it never did any good; sometimes they would just make things worse.
Folly lifted his head up and glanced over to where he last saw Trudly. He was still there, although lying down this time. Folly could tell that he was awake, though. His body was straight and his arms crossed as he stared straight at the ceiling. When he was asleep, Trudlys' position was far less rigid.
Follys' lips trembled a little, unsure whether or not to open his mouth. It wasn't just because of his subconscious urge to stay silent, but also because he wasn't quite sure what to say. He swallowed those feelings however, and whispered, "Trudly?"
He saw Trudly stir a little, moving his head to look at Folly. "Mm?"
Folly didn't answer for a moment. He still didn't know how to convey to Trudly what he had just mused about, and ended up blurting out whatever words he happened to grasp onto. "I'm sorry."
"Sorry? For what?"
"I…" Folly stammered a little, "I woke you up."
Trudly gave out a short laugh. Folly wasn't sure if he found what he just said funny or if he was laughing at the absurdity of what he just said. Nevertheless, Folly could feel his face turn warm, and he was sure it was also becoming quite red.
"Don't apologize for stuff like that. It ain't your fault. Besides, I'd rather ya wake me up then sleep through somethin' like that." Trudly replied, somewhat easing the redness in Folly's face. "And Folly?"
Still mainly focused on his own embarrassment over saying something so ridiculous, Trudlys' question caught Folly off guard a little. "Y-Yeah?"
"Don't feel like ya can't talk about somethin'. It won't do ya any good to keep stuff like that all pent up. And ya know I'm always here to listen."
Trudlys' words sank in a little. Yet, Folly still remained silent. He knew that he could talk to Trudly. He always knew that. Folly could always take comfort in telling Trudly what was on his mind, and know that he was listening. It had always been the same vice-versa as well. But somehow, Folly just couldn't find it in himself to talk at that moment.
For a long time, Folly was completely unable to open his mouth around other people. He could only feel comfortable talking while alone with Trudly. But he still experienced a bit of distress talking about certain things, mainly the same subjects that haunted Folly in his nightmares. That was the case at that moment, as he felt the urge to seal his mouth shut regardless of what he was just told.
Folly felt something touch his side all of a sudden. He nearly jumped, but had been pulled back from falling into another panic when he heard the soft muttering beside him. Folly looked down, and saw one of his Whismur holding on to him, as if it was trying to hug him as much as it could with its stubby arms. His other one toddled over and quickly followed suit. Folly couldn't tell either Whis or Mur apart from each other, as the moonlight wasn't nearly enough to do so. However, as tightly as those two held on to him, it really didn't matter much.
Folly didn't remember letting them out of their Poké Balls; he must have been too exhausted when they arrived at the house to think of it. The only thing Folly could think of was that Trudly let them out afterwords.
Regardless, Folly figured that Whis and Mur had kept their distance as usual when Folly's nightmare was slipping into real life, and were just coming back to him. Both his own Pokémon and Trudlys' knew better than to get near Folly while he was in such a state, unless they wanted to get hit in a fit of panic.
He picked the two Whismur up and placed them at his chest, hugging the two fluffy Pokémon almost like he would a stuffed toy. The Whismur in turn responded by cuddling up to him, quickly falling asleep. It did feel somewhat comforting to Folly, and almost therapeutic in a way. For a while, he had begun to forget about the reason why he was sitting up wide awake in the first place.
Still, he found it hard to go back to sleep. He felt scared to, knowing that the nightmares were just waiting for their chance to strike again. He was still so tired and exhausted, and he found out before long that his body was going to force him to sleep whether his mind liked it or not.
Before he did, he took another glimpse at Trudly. His position wasn't so rigid anymore, meaning that at least he had been able to fall asleep. Despite what Trudly said, Folly still felt somewhat bad for waking him up in the middle of the night all the time. He had to have gotten tired of it by now, being jolted awake by Folly's sudden screams. It never took Trudly that long to respond to them; it was almost like he was expecting it.
But the whole thing was kind of strange. Folly had known Trudly for a long time. He had always used to be such a heavy sleeper.
* * *
One year ago…
If someone was to poll the citizens of Orre where their ideal place to live would be, chances are Pyrite Town would be the very last thing they would say. There were a lot of nicknames for that town; "The Scum of Orre", "The Largest Slum in the World", and a rather popular one, "Hell". People in the other towns and cities loved to gossip about every horrid aspect that place had to offer. Rumors such as the con men being the tamest people you could find and that the obituaries took up half of the newspaper were quite widespread. A lot of those rumors were true, as a matter of fact.
One thing was for certain, though. Trudly and Folly fit right in.
They had been in many cities and towns over the course of their lives. In each of them, they would rob any store they found useful blind. All of the attempts to catch them failed spectacularly, and they would quickly become the bane of the market district. When they had experienced far too many close calls, they would simply pack up and jump to the next city.
But with Pyrite Town, a couple of petty thieves were the least of its problems. Sure, they were still rather infamous, but with so much worse people roaming the streets, a lot of the focus was taken off of them. That was a large part of the reason why they had been able to live there for almost eight years straight.
That didn't mean Folly had to like it, however. He liked quiet and small places, towns that were calm and sleepy. Pyrite Town, of course, was the farthest thing from that. He didn't know what woke him up, whether it was distant gunshots or the colorful language being shouted from the Duel Square. Whatever it was, it broke Folly from his sleep, which wasn't hard to do.
His vision was out of focus as his eyes strained to open, still wanting to rest. He fought that notion, however, and quickly sat up. Folly rubbed his crusty eyes as he tried to get his eyesight to clear up. It slowly came into focus, and he found himself having barely enough light to see the dirty and stained stone walls in front of him.
"Uggh… What time is it?" Folly groaned to himself, still half-asleep. He didn't even realize at first that he had spoken out loud, but it didn't really matter. He looked beside him and found Trudly sprawled out on the floor with Spook curled up on his back, completely dead to the world. Trudly usually didn't wake up for anything; someone could scream in his ear and he would just snore in response.
Folly allowed himself a few minutes to try to wake himself up. It wasn't easy, as almost all of him wanted to sleep more. Still, he had a reason to get up early, so he forced his body to stay awake as much as he possibly could.
Once Folly was about as awake as he was ever going to be, he gently moved aside the two Whismur cuddled up next to him and tiptoed over to the nearest window. He parted the rags they had been using as curtains, careful not to disturb Spitz as she slept in the middle of her web, and slightly poked his head out. Folly looked out at the dull town, colored almost exclusively with brown and gray. The older buildings, most of which were falling apart, were constructed with sandstone. The modern buildings in Pyrite Town, however, at least tried to keep up with the times and used metal instead. That attempt wasn't too successful, however, as most of the products looked hideous and appeared to be built out of scraps.
There wasn't any light peeking through the desert horizon, so that at least gave Folly somewhat of an idea of the time. Still, he strained his eyes to find one certain building out in the distance with a lit-up clock on it. He eventually found it, but he couldn't quite make it out clearly. Two… Three… Three o' clock?
Folly quickly gave up trying to figure it out and just settled on the fact that it was early. Trudly probably wouldn't be waking up for quite some time, and that was all that mattered. He took another look at him, still in the same exact, relaxed position, which only confirmed that fact.
It was settled, then. Seeing his opportunity, Folly silently inched out of the room that he and Trudly slept in. He knew that Trudly probably wouldn't hear him, but he just wanted to be safe. Once he was past the threshold, Folly quickened his pace, sharply made a turn around the nearest corner and entered the room nearby.
Their current dwelling was one of the old, two-story buildings in Pyrite Town, unique in that it was still in fairly good condition. That was relatively speaking, of course. There was no lighting, no electricity, no heating, no air conditioning, and no running water. Folly was used to living without all those things, though, so it didn't really bother him much.
The room he entered was what used to be the bathroom. The toilet, sink, and tub were still present, but none of them worked anymore. Therefore, Trudly usually ignored that room, as there was nothing useful in it. Folly knew that, which was why he chose it as his own personal workspace.
Folly reached into the tub, which was where he held all the little things he picked up over the years. Most of it was mechanical parts that he liked to fool around with when he was bored. What he was looking for, however, were the electrical parts that he stole a few months back. He gathered them all, including the small little box that was going to be the finished product.
He and Trudly usually lived alone with each other, but there was a third influence in their lives. A long time ago, they worked for Cipher under an admin named Miror B.. After a string of events that both he and Trudly would rather forget about, they were forced to leave Cipher for their own safety. Then a few years later, Miror B. came back into the picture, asking the two if they would form their own team with them. Miror B. was rather ecstatic about it, and spoke excitedly about ruling Orre and then the world by owning all its Pokémon. He promised food, a small sum of money, and an overall better quality of life, so naturally Folly and Trudly accepted.
Then again, they didn't so much work for him as they did hope to get lucky somehow and get rewards from their boss, which didn't happen too often. But still, Miror B. would always arrive completely unannounced in an overly flamboyant manner, startling Trudly and Folly half to death. Then they would have to sit through yet another lecture from him over being empty-handed as usual. They had no time to prepare and were always left in limbo over when they could expect Miror B. to show up.
Folly got to thinking, though. If they could have some way to know when Miror B. would be making his appearance, life could be so much simpler and quieter. He thought up a plan to make a simple radar and bug Miror B. with it, so that they could always have some idea where he was. Once he had settled on that idea, it took him a few months just to learn how to carry it out and then a few more to try to make it happen.
Now, he was so close to completing his plan. He just needed a few more hours to work on it, which was why he was so anxious to wake up early. He didn't get a lot of time to himself to make much progress, as he and Trudly were practically glued to each other for most of the day. Folly knew that it was nothing that Trudly would be upset over, but he still didn't tell him about it; he wanted it to be a surprise. He had already missed a golden opportunity to finish it before Trudlys' birthday about a month ago, so Folly was determined more than ever to finish it before long.
Among his possessions that he kept in the room was a flashlight, which he was forced to use with it still being so dark. It was barely working, as the light was starting to turn dim. That only slowed Folly's progress down, as he had to take a few moments to strain his eyes just to see what he was doing. Nevertheless, Folly eventually turned off the flashlight as the light from outside began to flood in. He didn't even realize it at first, as he had been so absorbed in his work that he lost track of the time.
After what he could only assume was a few hours of putting together the right parts, tweaking the programming, and fixing everything that prevented the radar from working properly, Folly sat up. He found himself in the red-tinted room, illuminated by the sunrise, looking down on his creation. He held the small, black receiver in one hand, and glanced over to the tiny antenna sitting a few feet away from him. It was done. After months of struggling to find the time to work on it and hours of frustration over failing to get it right several times, it was finally done.
He cracked a bit of a smile and was about to internally congratulate himself, but he stopped those notions from appearing too early. The way his luck worked, the moment he felt that he succeeded this time would cause it to fail as usual. He gulped, and then had his finger move its way over to the small switch on the side of the receiver. Hoping for the best and ready for the worst, he turned the radar on.
"BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP-"
The shrill and high-pitched noise sent Folly jumping backwards, forced a yell out of him, and caused him to fling the radar up into the air. He was knocked into the wall behind him, startling him even more and increasing his already racing heartbeat.
But as he happened to look up, he was forced to recover from being jumped in an instant as he caught the sight of the radar falling towards the hard, stone floor. "Sh*t!" He scrambled to his feet and made a mad dash to the radar, having to quickly calculate in his head where it was going to land. Folly desperately shot his hands out at the radar, grabbing it in his hands before it could reach the ground.
His grip on the radar was tight and his position was frozen, despite it no longer being in danger of shattering right in front of Folly. As he let the fact that he saved all his hard work to being reduced to wasted time from an extremely close call sink in, his breathing and heartbeat calmed down. With a relieved sigh, he stood up straight again and turned off the radar, silencing its piercing shrieks. "Well… It works, that's for sure…"
As he shut the radar off, a thought raced through his head. He knew that Trudly may have been a heavy sleeper, but he wondered if the radar's beeping might have been a bit too much. He flinched at the thought of Trudly waking up in a bad mood and gingerly left the bathroom to take a quick, nervous peek in the room where Trudly was. Amazingly, Trudly was still sleeping and the noise didn't startle his Whismur and cause a chain reaction. Yet another disaster was barely averted.
Folly tiptoed back into the bathroom, where he both praised his good luck and took the opportunity to celebrate. The smile that began to form on his face earlier grew into a full grin as he began laughing in joy. "I did it! I finally did it!" He kept his jolly cheers at a low volume, but he still couldn't help but cause a bit of noise in his excitement. Folly danced around, completely unable to contain his joy over the matter.
Part of him couldn't wait to show it to Trudly, but after considering it for a while he decided to hold off on that. Gathering up what was left on the floor, he put it all back into the tub, out of Trudlys' sight if he happened to walk past the bathroom. He picked up the antenna and slipped it along with the radar in his pocket, ready to pull it out to show Trudly when he felt the time was right.
Still feeling rather euphoric over his success, the smile on his face not weakening in the slightest, Folly didn't pay much attention to what was around him. He left the bathroom, glancing at his pockets as he walked. When he lifted his head up, he was once again jumped backwards when he saw Trudly standing right in front of him.
Folly felt himself begun to sweat. Did Trudly see anything? He tried to hide his nervousness over the potential that his surprise was just ruined, but he knew that Trudly could see right through him a lot of the time.
However, it didn't seem that Trudly could see much of anything at that point. He was the last thing from a morning person, and it showed. His eyes were still clamped shut, enough so that Folly wondered if he was sleepwalking. Trudlys' long hair was unkempt and frazzled in a terrifying and unholy combination of hat hair and bed head.
Trudly just stood there for a while, wobbling every now and then as he tried to stay awake. Considering how dazed and half-asleep Trudly was, Folly doubted he saw anything. Still, he locked his anxiousness away and hid any bit of suspicion from Trudly. "Uh… Mornin'?"
Trudlys' response was nothing more than an unintelligible mutter. It took him a few more minutes for Trudly to even look somewhat conscious. His eyes cracked open slowly as he gradually woke up. Eventually, he managed to become slightly coherent when he moaned, "Ugh… The hell was that noise earlier?"
"I didn't hear anythin'." Folly blurted out quickly before his poker face had any chance to break.
As groggy as Trudly was, he seemed to buy it without a second thought. He sauntered over to the wall and slouched against it to keep his balance. He pulled his hat and red sunglasses out of his baggy pockets and put them on, making him look a little less frightening in appearance. After a while, Folly went over a stood next to him when he appeared to be fully conscious.
"What are ya doin' up so early, anyways? Usually, you'd sleep 'til noon if ya could." Trudly asked, yawning at the same time.
"I dunno. I just couldn't sleep, I guess." Folly replied with a straight face. Technically, he wasn't lying, as his excitement over working on the radar loved to rob him of a few hours sleep.
Folly shifted his eyes over to Trudly, who was starting to look a little skeptical. If continued to ask any more questions, Folly wouldn't be able to keep up his façade for much longer. Therefore, instead of lying through his teeth, he decided to try another tactic: changing the subject. He put on a cheery smile and said, "So what're we gonna do today?"
Trudly's skeptical expression disappeared. He stood silent for a moment, but only for a moment. It didn't take him long to give an answer at all.
Continued...