Erm, methinks you should not spam the thread.
On a positive note:
Hello again all!
Well, I've finally finished Chapter Eighteen! Here it is. Enjoy...
THE POKEMON REBELLION: CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Larmo desperately wanted to attack the Teddiursa, to leap on her and gouge her eyes out for daring to infiltrate his headquarters, but the small, down-to-earth part of him argued with that scenario furiously.
“What if she is innocent? What if she is just a Teddiursa you failed to see? You would maul a member of your army? A pokemon who came here to fight for you? How would that go down with the rest of your followers?”
“But she had no injuries! She must have sneaked in during the battle! She deserves to DIE!”
It was like a war was going on in Larmo’s mind. A painful war. Two parts of him were fighting furiously, and it was taking its toll on the already tired Linoone. He grabbed his head in agony, bending over and breathing heavily as his conscious continued to fight with itself.
“Maybe she simply did not get injured in the battle!”
“That would have been impossible! Everyone is hurt! Everyone but that SPY!”
“So maybe she hid! Cowardice may be frowned upon, but it is not a crime! She doesn't deserve to die simply for being a coward!”
The furious part of Larmo’s mind wanted to attack, but it could see the sense that the other had relayed. The Linoone was still angry, but he could not attack a pokemon that had a chance of being one of his own followers. He sighed angrily, and ran off to find Kenda.
Numanjya wiped the sweat from her forehead as she finished a bandage on the wing of a Psyduck.
“There. Now don’t strain that wing, and the bullet hole will close.”
The Water pokemon nodded, and laid back down on his tablecloth. Numanjya sighed miserably, wiping the bloods off her hands. She turned to her assistant, the Dodrio. His three beaks were stained with blood.
“Thankyou Tretéte. You’ve been a big help. You should go get that blood off your beaks.” she said with a small smile of thanks.
The Bird pokemon nodded silently, and stalked off. Numanjya sighed again, looking around the room. The Chansey did not like to show her emotions too plainly, as she found her mysterious air to be a good thing to induce respect. She had to stay cold. Yet all this blood everywhere did disturb her. The Chansey was not one to get ill at the sight of blood, yet dealing with all this pain and death…it weakened her spirit. The Chansey made a point not to reveal anything about herself to anyone. The only thing she told anyone was her name. Numanjya liked her name. She was rather proud of it. It was quite unique, if she did say so herself. Another factor in her identity. Add together a blank past, an exotic name, immense healing knowledge and a mysterious attitude, and voila! She was now a magic pokemon in the eyes of the ignorant. The Chansey found this assumption amusing. Soon rumours began to sprout, not all of them pleasant. So the Chansey adapted. She travelled the land, offering her services. Years had passed. She was not a young pokemon. She had seen a great deal of blood in her years. But here, the vibe of this place…it seemed to disturb her. It loosened her tough exterior, having to order pokemon to be killed. Sure, she had done it before, hell, even killed them herself! But here…it felt different. She felt miserable.
The Chansey walked over to where the family of Electric pokemon sat. The mother Pikachu was sitting, talking to her mate, who had woken up. Shockz was smiling weakly, holding hands with the teary-eyed Pikachu, while his son, Leclec, sat on his large stomach, squealing happily as he went up and down when his father breathed. Numanjya couldn’t help smiling at the cute scene.
At least happiness still existed in this place.
Larmo found Kenda lying near the Sick Bay. The Mightyena was slumped, his head lying in his arms, staring at the cream coloured walls. Larmo quickly ran up to him.
“Kenda!” he cried. The Mightyena leapt up as if electrocuted.
“Geez Larmo, you scared the heck outta me!” he gasped. Larmo ignored the fact that he had startled his friend and proceeded to inquire about the Teddiursa.
“How would I know? Ask Nero.”
“I would Kenda, apart from the fact he’s unconscious.”
“Don’t you think I know that!? God, why are you always so patronizing!?” Kenda yelled, suddenly leaping to his feet.
Larmo blinked in shock, momentarily speechless. “Kenda, I-”
“You what?! I’m sick of you acting like you’re superior to me! Just because you’re the leader of the rebellion doesn’t mean you can treat me like filth!”
“I never treat you like filth, I treat you as my equal!”
“You coulda fooled me.” Kenda spat, collapsing back to the ground, his body hitting the tiled floor with a dull slap. He said nothing more. Larmo gingerly approached the Mightyena, the Dark pokemon staring at the wall again.
“…Kenda?”
The Mightyena didn’t reply.
“I…I’m sorry if I hurt you. I…I didn’t mean it. I just get…a little controlling sometimes, you know? I never meant any offence!” the Linoone pleaded.
Kenda was silent for a second, then he turned back to the Linoone. Larmo noticed that the Mightyena’s eyes were red and bloodshot. He whimpered.
“I’m so sorry Larmo, I…I shouldn’t have spoken to you like that. You didn’t do anything…what was I thinking…so stupid…” he mumbled, turning away.
“Kenda?” Larmo asked, the Teddiursa momentarily forgotten. The Mightyena whimpered again. “What’s wrong?”
The dog pokemon turned back to the Linoone. “It’s…its Tory, she…she’s…”
“She’s what?” Larmo asked, genuinely confused. Kenda turned away again, and began to relate the tale Tory told him, and about her ‘darkness’. Larmo listened carefully.
“So that’s it. Then she just shouted at me to go away. I…I’m worried about her, Larmo. I don’t know what she’ll do in this state…”
“It is worrisome. How strange…she did not strike me as the type to be consumed by darkness…”
“Me neither…”
“She saved your life, you know.”
Kenda blinked. “She did?”
Larmo nodded. “Yep. When you were falling in the battle, she blasted away that spike.”
“…and I didn’t even thank her…” Kenda said, stunned. Larmo shook his head.
“I don’t think she required thanks,” Larmo replied. “Anyway Kenda, don’t worry about her. I’m sure a good sleep will cure her of these delusions.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Kenda said happily, feeling instantly encouraged by Larmo’s logic. “She’ll be fine. Wow, thanks Larmo! I feel so much better!”
Larmo smiled. “Glad I could help you, friend.”
Kenda beamed. “Now, what was it you wanted to know?”
The reason he had come to speak to Kenda shot back to Larmo. His eyes glinted dangerously.
“Teddiursa,” he said softly.
"Oh yeah! About Teddiursa! Now that I’m thinking clearly…I can definitely say I didn’t see any in our group. I was patrolling last night, and I couldn’t see a single one. Is that what you wanted to kn-hey! Larmo?”
The Linoone had disappeared. Kenda scratched his head, confused. Larmo did some strange things sometimes. Oh well. The Mightyena was feeling enlightened. He leapt happily to his feet. Tory was going to be fine. She just needed sleep. Dancing around the room, Kenda trotted over to cheer up the sad pokemon. He was good at that.
Larmo’s sapphire eyes gleamed with the fires of rage as he strode quickly through the cluttered second floor of the tower. The darker part of his mind celebrated gleefully as it released all of its ferocity into his bloodstream. Anger was seething through the Linoone’s body, taking control of his actions. A snarl was planted on his lips, contorting his face into a terrible mask of fury. He was a frightening sight, and any pokemon in his path quickly moved out of his way, not wishing to upset their leader when he was in this state. The Linoone’s eyes scanned the area with quick accuracy, seeking out the Teddiursa he had run into. His claws itched and tingled. That Teddiursa would pay.
Rhapsody listened silently as the little Natu related the tale of the battle against the police.
“…and then they just left,” the small pokemon said with a sigh, fluffing her wings as if trying to find some comfort in the small green feathers. “It was a bloodbath, practically everyone got hurt in some way, even me. Look at this,” The Natu held up one of her feet, struggling to balance on the remaining limb. Rhapsody supported her, and the Psychic pokemon showed the Teddiursa her foot. Two of the three toes had been broken badly, and were bent and crumpled like an accordion. Just the sight of them made Rhapsody’s toes and fingers ache. She winced, and the Natu smiled blankly.
“How did…”
“I got kicked by a Miltank. It sucks being small, huh?”
“But they must…the pain!”
“They don’t hurt that much…us Psychic pokemon are able to faintly block some nerve signals, like pain for instance. I’ll be fine. You don’t look hurt though!”
“Oh, I erm, got hit on the head. That’s how I lost my memory,”
“But you have no wound! How could you have been hit yet receive no wound?”
Rhapsody stuttered, her eyes sweeping the area as if to pluck a solution out of the air around her. Suddenly, she noticed that pokemon were moving out of the way of someone who was approaching at a rather fast speed. As a Wobbuffet moved out of her line of vision, she could see who was coming.
And it made her blood run cold.
“Hey look, the leader is coming. I wonder why?” the Natu said, sounding both confused and interested at the same time. “He sure looks mad!”
“Leader?!” Rhapsody gasped, whirling around. The Natu nodded. Rhapsody turned back to the approaching Linoone. He was looking around, his gleaming blue eyes flicking around, his face contorted in fury. His expression struck chords in Rhapsody’s heart, the deathly notes of pure fear. The notes turned into a symphony as Larmo turned in her direction, meeting her eyes. He seemed to turn in slow motion, his eyes slowly flicking over to meet hers. The fear became overwhelming, the symphony rising into a terrifying crescendo. Rhapsody trembled in horror, as a twisted grin came to the Linoone’s face. He started to run towards her.
Rhapsody wanted to run. Oh god, how she wanted to run. But she couldn’t. Her legs were frozen in place, held in terror’s sadistic grip. The gaze of the Linoone never left her eyes. That stare…it sealed her in place, it didn’t let her move. He knew. He knew she wasn’t a rebel. The Teddiursa could just tell. And she could also tell he wanted to kill her. The expression said it all.
Larmo could see his prey. She was in sight. He saw in her expression that she was not a rebel pokemon. A true rebel would not suffer the fear she was experiencing from the sight of him when he was angry. The Linoone continued to run towards the terrifying Teddiursa, no obstacles in his path.
Until the Girafarig teleported right in front of him.
Larmo collided with the Psychic pokemon, letting out a yell of rage and shock as his body slammed painfully into the Girafarig’s side. It wasn’t phased by the crash. Larmo’s eye contact with Rhapsody was broken.
The Teddiursa was immediately able to move. The raw power fear had injected into her was finally able to do something. With a whimper, she ran desperately towards the stairs.
“STOP!” Larmo shrieked angrily, trying to push past the solid Girafarig. The Psychic would not let him.
“Move you idiot, she’s getting away!” the Linoone yelled. “What are you doing?!”
“It’s Nero.”
Those two words immediately melted away any anger Larmo possessed. Rhapsody was driven from his mind as he stared in horror at the grim face of the Gifararig.
“What?”
“Nero. Sir he’s…he’s dying.”
Larmo’s heart froze. No. It was impossible. Nero couldn’t…he would…no…
“Are you sure?”
The Girafarig maintained his dark expression. “The Mightyena Brolga summoned Numanjya, and she told me to get you. She says the old one has not much time left.”
Larmo trembled violently, his emotions whirling around his mind. He looked up at the Girafarig.
“Take me to him.”
Stumbling and gasping, Rhapsody dashed out of the main area, the power of fear making her disorientated and confused. Her imagination sent invisible enemies around every turn, causing the Teddiursa to scream and lash out, all the while fleeing desperately. She reached the stairs in record time, convinced in her mind that the Linoone was still chasing her, silently threatening to rip his lethal claws down her neck with that purely evil grin on his face. Vivid, bloody images flashed around Rhapsody’s mind, causing her to miss-step and tumble down the flight of stairs, wailing and yelling in a combination of terror, pain and shock. A hard corner of one particular stair slammed into her jaw, causing one of her teeth to pierce her tongue and fill her mouth with blood. She landed on the first floor with a loud thud, her head hitting the ground painfully hard, knocking her senseless. The Teddiursa laid there, the blood pouring out of her mouth and onto the floor in a solid stream of scarlet. It permeated the carpet, and spread like the branches of a flowering tree.
Rhapsody did not get up.
The Girafarig immediately placed a hoof on Larmo’s shoulder; the Psychic pokemon’s eyes beginning to glow an eerie, metallic blue colour.
“I will teleport us there.” he said. “Close your eyes…and clear your mind…”
The Linoone obeyed the request, fighting to drive away the morbid thought swirling around his conscious. A strange zipping sound filled his ears, and the Linoone opened his eyes to the sterile white walls of the Sick Bay. Not stopping to comprehend his strange method of travel, the Linoone rushed blindly over to the bed. The figure lying slumped over the covers forced open its charred eyelids, revealing dim red eyes. Yet there was something very wrong with these eyes. Where there should have been white, there was simply more red, so the eyes looked like orbs with a black dot staining their centres. It was a disturbing sight, and Larmo could not stop a horrified expression forming on his face. At the sight of the look the Linoone gave it, the figure hurriedly shielded the ravaged organs from view with burnt eyelids. Larmo approached slowly, treading softly for some reason unknown.
“…Nero?” the Linoone asked timidly. The figure on the bed quivered, and let out a loud wheezing cough, its torched muscles seizing up.
“Relax, relax!” Numanjya cried, rushing over and dabbing water on the Rhyhorn’s forehead. The coughing fit subsided, and Nero slumped once again.
“How…how are you feeling?” Larmo asked. Nero didn’t open his eyes, instead releasing a loud sigh.
“Nice…to hear…your voice,” he croaked. Larmo smiled, his prior question forgotten, and sat by the bed.
“So…young one…how’s…things?” the Rhyhorn wheezed.
“Oh, fine. Fine.” Larmo said in an entirely unconvincing tone. Nero let out a noise that was a combination of a gasp and a laugh.
“Oh please,” he spat, the clearest words he had emitted all day. “I’ve been…with this rebellion…with you…for too long to not know…when you are lying. You do know…you are hopeless at it?”
Larmo smiled weakly. “You know me too well, old friend.”
Nero smiled in return, still shielding his eyes with the charred eyelids. Larmo ran his eyes over Nero’s skin. It was a terrible sight. What was once a smooth grey surface was now a field of black, with flakes occasionally falling off and littering the floor. It was twisted, and melted, deformed into a strange nightmarish shape. One thing was for sure. Nero did not look like a Rhyhorn anymore. Anyone who didn’t know who he was would mistake him for another breed of pokemon. Whatever traces of Rhyhorn he still had were purely in spirit.
His physical form was no more.
Larmo jumped slightly as Nero spoke again, his normally gruff voice mutilated into a wheezy sounded groan. He could not handle a sentence; instead he spoke in short gasps using the little breath he could muster.
“I guess…you want…to know…what happened…to my eyes?” the Rhyhorn asked.
“…Yes.” Larmo replied softly, ashamed that his friend had seen the look of horror he gave him.
“The burning…broke blood vessels…and they leaked…into the jelly part…of my eyes…staining them red. Horrific, isn’t it?”
Larmo did not reply, and Nero finally unshielded his eyes, looking straight at the Linoone.
“My sight…isn’t so good…but I can still…see…” he said, still wheezing. “And I can see…your pain.”
Larmo blinked. “What pain? I have no pain.”
“Larmo…I may not have… your pretty eyes…but I can see…a whole lot better…than you can…it seems. The problem with…your eyes…attractive as they are…is the fact that your emotions…reflect so strongly…in them. I can see…your sadness. So…what’s wrong?”
Larmo raised a claw up to his face, and examined it. It was a brilliant weapon of war, thick at the base where it connected with the paw and thinned to a perfect point at the tip. A great deal of damage could be inflicted with it. Larmo continued to look at it, his eyes dimmed from their usual gleaming magnificence. Nero closed his eyes once again.
“So that’s it…” the Rhyhorn said sadly. “It was the battle…wasn’t it?”
Larmo nodded mechanically. Nero returned the gesture understandingly. The Linoone began to quiver.
“I’m sick of the death,” Larmo rasped, his voice sounding torn, his eyes beginning to gleam with liquid. “Too many have died…and it’s my fault…I brought them here…I brought them here to die…”
As soon as Larmo had uttered the last sentence, Nero’s eyes flicked back open.
“Don’t you say that,” he warned, his speech suddenly returning to him in his anger. “You did not bring any pokemon here to die Larmo. You brought them here to make a stand.”
“But the battle-”
“Yes, the battle was dreadful. Lives were lost. Get over it. The pokemon in that battle died because they believed what you believed-that freedom is a right, not a privilege. They died for a cause. They died for you, not because of you.”
Larmo looked up at Nero, tears now beginning to slowly work their way down his cheeks as he ran his eyes over Nero’s destroyed body. “But look what happened…to you…your skin…it’s…gone…I got you into this mess…I caused this pain you feel…”
Nero smiled grimly. “Oh please. This is nothing! Just a little burn. You should see me when I’m really in pain! Trust me Larmo, if I was in pain, you’d know it!”
Larmo laughed, a small interruption to the flood of sadness pouring out of him. “Don’t try to…lie to me Nero…I can see your pain…and I caused it…”
Nero shook his head. “No you didn’t Larmo. You know you didn’t cause this.”
Larmo wiped the tears from his fur, yet they still continued to drip down his face. “Then who can I blame for your pain?”
“Why does there always have to be a guilty person? Why do you always have to blame someone? Just get over it Larmo! My injuries…as bad as they are…I do not blame…anyone for them. Not even the pokemon who burnt me. I blame no-one.”
Larmo looked at Nero again, the Linoone’s shock registering plainly. Suddenly, Nero began to shudder.
“Nero? What’s wrong?” Larmo gasped.
“I think…this is it…Larmo old boy…” the Rhyhorn gasped through clenched teeth. “Time for me…to move on…to the land in the sky…”
“NO!” Larmo screamed, throwing himself down in front of the Rhyhorn. “Nero, I need you! Don’t leave me! I can’t do this alone!”
Nero smiled, slumping onto the bed. “Larmo…I have always believed in you…from the time I first met you in the Safari Zone…I knew…you were something special…and you have proved it…many, many times. If there was ever…a pokemon strong enough…to take this on…you are the one Larmo. This is your destiny.”
Larmo’s tears began to fall onto the ground, making small shadowy puddles of despair. “Please don’t go.” He whispered. “Please…please…”
“I must,” Nero said gently. “It is my time. But Larmo…I would like…to thank you…from the depths of my old heart…for freeing me that day. You showed me…the world…and I can never…repay you…”
“You can repay me by staying!” Larmo cried.
“You know…just as I do…that that…is truly impossible,” Nero said gently.
“That doesn’t mean I have to accept it.” Larmo whimpered. “I want you to stay…you helped me so much…I didn’t do anything in return…” Nero smiled.
“Larmo…that day you freed me from the Safari Zone…you did more for me than you can ever imagine. You freed…my spirit…you freed it…to fly. Higher than I could have every imagined. For that…I thank you…my dearest friend.”
Nero’s eye’s fluttered closed. Larmo reached up and clasped the Rhyhorn’s front foot. Nero smiled. The Linoone’s tears began to drip onto the black skin. The grip on Larmo’s paw began to weaken, till the limb slowly dropped onto the bed. Nero was still, and his ragged breathing stopped. He was gone. Larmo began to quiver, and collapsed onto Nero’s body, his tears once again coming fast, and falling onto the Rhyhorn’s still form. Numanjya buried her face in her paws. The Linoone began to weep, for all the death, for all the pain he and the rest of the rebels had suffered, and for all the agony they felt. But most of all, he wept for Nero. For the Rhyhorn who had inspired him so much. He wept for his friend. The rain continued to pour down from the heavens, the angels weeping for the loss of the gruff old Rhyhorn who had done his best to help the rebellion he believed in so much.
‘You freed my spirit to fly…higher than I could have imagined. For that I thank you…my dearest friend…’
Comments?
-;157;
Don't really know how to reply to that...erm, glad for your concern?