Bitter and Cold

Spark’s POV

    Emolga and I were still staring at the image wearing shocked expression as the morning sun made its present clear in the sky. We were both silent for a long time, with only the buzzing of Kricketot in the distance to fill the silence. The image lingered in my hand, getting moved by the wind but not losing attention at whatever he was staring at. His face felt so familiar, yet entirely different at the same time; his expression foreign and from another world. One, that was peering out from that one, into this one.

    The mere fact that she had this thing in her possession scared me.

    I would had continued to stare at it, in both abject fascination and fear, had Dunsparce not broken the silence and said, “So, guys… are we gonna tell everyone else in paradise about this?”

    Hearing his words, and being brought back into the scene taking place in front of the house, I said, “Let’s just do it later. I’ll hold on to the photo, since…”

    My silence managed to tell a story on its own as I tucked the image away. They both gave up, remembering how I had been last night.

    Shuffling through my bag for a moment, wondering what to say, I eventually continued. “So, why did you come here anyways? It isn’t that common for you to come to me in the morning, of all times.”

    “Well, you aren’t wrong,” she said, before sighing, “fine, I’ll come out with it. Look, we were just concerned you had gotten into more of a mess than you were last night, to put it crudely. And, considering the state we ran into you being this morning… look, Spark, are you okay?”

    Looking downward, wondering how to respond, I eventually said, “Hang on a moment, I need to go grab something from inside.”

    Walking back into the house, in an attempt to avoid Emolga’s constant barrage of questions, I sat down on one of the stumps. Looking out the window that shined light throughout the entire room, I could not stop myself from thinking. I still wondered how I had let myself break down as much as I did in front of everyone back there, when they were all happy and cheering for Riley. It was selfish, and disgusting, if I was going to be particularly honest.

    And the weird part about it all? Why we had not forgotten about Riley yet. I was not going to stick around, and just wonder why like Emolga wanted me to. I had to figure out what happened, with both Riley and that Snivy.

    Finding a new bit of motivation within me, I got up and went to look for my bag. I swore I had laid it somewhere around here, but no matter how hard I looked it evaded me. Under the table, the stump-chairs, everything and everywhere inside the house. All the meanwhile, one bag laid against its side on the wall of the house.

    Riley’s bag. The one he had left behind after his time here came to its conclusion. Something he would hate to see go to waste, knowing him. I knew I had to use Riley’s bag for the time being, despite all the memories it held with it, and my general anxiousness towards possibly losing it. Walking towards the wall it rested on, I grabbed its handle and pulled it across my shoulder. When it came fully into contact with my skin, its surface starting to grind against it. It felt odd, gritty, even. The result of something being scrapped against the skin of a dragon for months. Looking at it with a slight tick in my eye, a bright red insignia stitched on long ago came into my view. The dirtied, long since sown on red insignia Leavanny had made as thanks for saving her son from Inflora forest continually taunted me as I adjusted it. Breathing in and out, trying to repressing feelings that wanted to unleash themselves in the form of kicking over one of the stumps, I walked back out of the house. I was greeted by both Emolga and Dunsparce, talking and acting like nothing had changed. That was, until they noticed the bag I was carrying.

    Emolga, after looking back and forth at the bag and I, said, “Uh… Spark, not to be rude, but… what are you doing? Look, I-I know you’re the leader of the guild, but… I’d be more than happy to fill in for you in your absence.”

    Plastering on a familiar smile to my face, I interrupted her. “Look, Emolga, I’ll be fine. We really need to figure out what happened last night, and well… I can’t really just stay put and hope for the best, if you get what I mean?”

    Hearing a slight stutter in my own voice, I held back a bit of anger that tried to get out. Trying to push it aside, afraid of any of it leaking out, I waited for a response. Her eye twitched, with a tick, until she finally gave in.

    “Okay, fine then. I… really would appreciate you not taking this situation as drastic as you have been, nor your believing you need to push yourself constantly like, but… whatever then. Let’s head down to the town for some supplies and start tracking down this enigma, I guess.”

    Collectively agreeing on our next course of action, we started walking. The path weaned slowly from cleared dirt to more compacted ground, pounded down over time by the footsteps of many pokémon traveling from Paradise to Post Town. As we walked along the path, with the mountains slowly rising into view from the side, fatigue balled up inside me. Fatigue I had to hide from both of them. Trying to come off as just a bit sleep-deprived, I looked at the far away mountain; the same one we had climbed what had to be less than a day ago. It towered over all, an imposing reminder in the distance.

    A reminder, of something that I should had long forgotten about by now.

    Getting snapped out of my train of thoughts upon hearing her voice, Emolga said,“So… since we are frankly in the middle of nowhere right now, care to explain that long story of yours?”
    
    Stopping mid-step, I quickly found myself back there, chasing after that grass type with her laugh in the rain. I still remember the grimy dirt that mocked me when I fell down, a spit in the face. Forgetting what Emolga asked me, I imagined myself back there, running down this very same road.

    Emolga folded her hands, sighing. “Uh… hey Spark, you there? You’ve been acting weird this entire time, but... this is entirely unlike you. Is something the matter?”

    Getting snapped out of my thoughts, I quickly answered her. “Sorry, I was just… brought back to thinking about what happened yesterday, that’s all,” I said, slightly gritting my teeth at the falsified truth. “But, you do have a point. You guys deserve an explanation, so let me explain what happened.”

    Giving off a low, almost inaudible sigh, I started explaining the fun experience that was last night to them. “It all started when I woke up from my rest after a lightning bolt hit nearby, waking me up with the clamoring sound of thunder.” Half contemplating mentioning the dream prior, I dropped the notion. “When I finally got myself up off the ground, I noticed I was not alone in the room. Turning around, expecting to see one of you guys from Paradise, I instead saw a Snivy. After awkwardly finding ourselves staring at each other for a while, eventually the topic of Riley was… wait.”

    I stopped speaking for a moment, much to both Dunsparce and Emolga’s confusion. “hang on a moment, this question has be bumbling along in my mind for a while, but I never thought to ask it. Why… why can we still remember Riley? And, is…”

    Emolga and Dunsparce looked at me, their faces spelling dismay as I quickly put down my bag and started ransacking through it. It was a disordered mess as usual, but eventually I found the thing I was looking for laying in one of the side compartments, nearly entirely pristine.

    Pulling it out, I showed it to them again. “Is there any possible chance this is the cause of that, and not Hydreigon just randomly going back on his promise?”

    The question stood in the air, waiting for a respondent to answer it. A respondent, that would turn out to be Herdier, rapidly running over to us.

    “W-what is it?” Emolga asked, finding herself slightly on edge after what I said.

    Herdier stopped, panting nearly nonstop from constant running. He eventually composed himself, and said, “Spark, thank Arceus you’re here! I need to—”

    “Can I ask you one simple question? Just one?” Emolga said, interrupting him and leaving me wondering how scared I made her. Was she really that off-put by all of this?

    “Sure, but please, be makin’ it quick. This is really, really urgent,” Herdier said in response, albeit slightly begrudgingly.

    Emolga mulled over her words before a moment, before she said, “Okay, fine, I’ll make it quick. Uh… do you recognize the name Riley at all, by any chance?”

    “Riley? What kinda name is that? That… I can’t say I’ve ever particularly ‘eard that one.”

    There it was, nearly the same thing he said all the way back when Riley first came into town. I still wondered how Riley and I kept the fact that he was human hidden for so long. If I was going to be honest, I still wondered about a lot of things, especially after the whole experience last night.

    But my mind especially wondered what was going through Emolga’s mind when she said, whimpering on the ground, “It’s… it’s nothing.”

    “Uh… heya, Emolga. You don’t be lookin’ so good, is something the—”

    “It’s-it’s nothing… What was so urgent that you came running down here, anyways?” I said, on Emolga’s behalf as she went through an internal crisis. I did not want to have to make her go through talking with anybody right now, nor did I want to illicit anything was more wrong to the resident of Post Town then we already had.

    As the conversation came to a dead halt, I started mulling over the implications of all of this. Knowing Herdier, he would not forget about someone as big as Riley that easily, meaning that they all really had forgotten. In a way, I knew I asked for this in a way. But in another way, I could see how being the only one out of three who remembered something could be a bit terrifying.

    How had their perception been altered? What was fact or truth to them? Were we alone in remembering him, out here?

    Trying not to let any of the grinding concern in my mind leak out, I heard Herdier continue. “Well uh… Spark, I’ll-I’ll just show you the note I found wakin’ up this mornin’. Please, this… this is really important for both me and the little old weasel himself, Lillipup, that you handle this...”

    Herdier, being an elder of the village, was not one to usually go asking for help; so when he came running down here, I should had known something was not right. He walked towards me and motioned me to grab a small, already opened envelope sticking out of his bag. Wondering what kind of mess Herdier had that it required him to come running towards the Paradise, I lifted the already torn open flap and started reading the contents aloud, attracting the attention of everyone.

    “Hello, this is Snivy,” I read from the letter aloud, scared at the contents as Emolga and Dunsparce look up at me. Taking a moment to recompose myself, I continued reading. “I’m assuming you have been looking for your son, Lillipup.”

    Hesitating for a moment, fearful of where this was about to go, I continued reading.“I’ll just cut to the chase, I kidnapped him. I demand that Spark shows up at the end of the forest by the Ragged Mountains with the special item he has taken from me, be there or… Let’s just say the…!”

    The next word on the letter screamed out so loud to me once I saw it, to the point where I could not force it out of my mouth. It slowly floated down to the ground as I stumbled backwards, not believing what I had just read.

    Eventually, the words came out of my mouth. The words, that made me think this Snivy had a lot less sanity, and was a lot more demented.

    “S-slave… slave market,” I said, getting up off the dirty ground and gaining giant looks of concern from both Dunsparce and Emolga. Shaking my head at the turn the day had made, I picked it up and continued reading.

    “T-the Lillipup will… will end up on the slave market, down south. Bring Spark down to the forest south of the Ragged Mountains, and his little bag he stole with a certain object of mine, or… or…”

    Not being able to bring myself to say the final few words on the blackmail, I folded it back up and put it away in my bag. Both of them were staring at me, their mouths unable to believe what they had just heard. I barely believed it myself, if I was going to be honest.

    After a long prolonged silence, Dunsparce said, “This… this is all one big joke, r-right?”

    “I… I wish.” I said, wondering just how much of a mess that Snivy was. I knew I should have kept on running after that demented mess of a grass type. I should not had stopped, and let her do something like. Taking a moment to look down at the image, now feeling the slightest tinge of regret, I closed my bag and started walking over to Emolga. She was still slightly shaken from the event moments prior, but I needed to talk to her.

    Trying not to disturb her, I asked quietly, “So… do we have enough supplies in the bag to deal with whatever we’ll encounter on the way there?”

    “Yeah… yeah, I… I think so. We only we heading up to talk to Hydreigon, and already have supplies I believe, so we should be fine heading down there with what we have…”

    I looked at Herdier and said, “If there is one thing I’ll promise you, is that you will have your son back by evening.”

    “Now, let’s get going, shall we?”

    All three of us started running towards Ragged Mountains to the south, hoping to get there before it was too late.

Snivy’s POV 

    Sounds of footsteps filled the air as we quickly down the path. The trees varied leaves danced as both Tyrunt and Pansear ran alongside me, Pansear’s large, bulky bag slowing him down. Every few moments, I would cautiously give a quick glance behind me, thinking I was going to see a certain little Pikachu I was trying to lead down here with my stolen possessions.

    Thankfully, none of my concerned glances had any merit as the only thing that stood behind me was still, silent air. Air, grown stagnant due to a lack of activity, standing around and waiting. Air that would soon remember what action feels like, if that runt tried to ‘be a hero’ as some would put it. I still disliked that we had to do this in the first place. I really did. But what had to be done, had to be done. And besides, the fact that he had taken such a keen interest on me in the first place showed that… well, something was messed up in that little head of his.

    Something deeply concerning. Something, I did not have time to dissect.

    Moving forward, seeing Pansear still struggling to keep the contents of his bag under control, I said, “Heh, having some trouble there, Pansear?”

    He looked back at me. “Well, what do you think? He’s been a fun experience to handle, I can say that much. Was there something in that bag that really merited all of this? Surely we could’ve just—”

    “Yes. Because that little thing you carry around with you is just something you found off a forest trail, right?” I said, interrupting him.

    He went dead silent, the point hitting right where I wished for it to. His grip on the bag visibly tightened as I saw him look down at the thing I had seen him carry around from the first day I met him. It was an odd little thing, and I had always questioned why he had it. Whatever the reason was though, it was close to home.

    I would know, after all.

    Eventually, he continued, scratching the back of his head sheepishly. “You’re right. Fine, I’ll put my trust in you on this. Don’t make me regret it.”

    “I won’t. You can trust me on that.”

    Taking a moment to let that conversation cool down, I looked up ahead. Up above, was a bridge. A empty, desolate bridge, that signified we got here on time.

    Perfect. Now, we could do what we planned.

    Motioning everyone forward, we all pushed ahead. The bridge looked oddly new, compared to all the tarnished pathways and signs preceding it, and for a moment, I felt slight regret for what I was about to do.

    Just a tiny bit, though. Just the smallest bit imaginable.

    As well all finally reached the other end, a small smile formed on my face. Now, it was time for the main performance.

    “Tyrunt, could you please use earthquake on the surrounding area, like we planned? We wouldn’t want them coming at full strength, would we?”

    He, with a moment’s regret, obliged. The earth shaked, along with the mountain as rocks came down on the path and bridge in front of us. For a moment, I worried the structure would managed to hold as it buckled but never fully broke.

    A worry that soon came undone when a large boulder came down, unsettled by the earthquake. It crashed down and broke the bridge into twain; it making both parts of it fall into the abyss underneath.

    Gone. Forever, in a place no one would ever look for it. No one who valued their life, anyways.

    With a slight nod, we all agreed they were not coming over after something akin to that. Not wanting to be around when they arrived, we hurried on ahead.

Spark’s POV

    As we ran forward, hoping to catch that Snivy off-guard before she reached where she had told me to meet her with the bag. Still hauling the thing, but knowing what she really wanted at the end of the day, I tried to push forward as fast as possible.

    Something, that became impossible once the ground started shaking. Something, that prompted me to scream “Cover!” as the area in front of us became a mess of falling rocks from the cliff-faces. Earthquakes were known for being a rarity around he from village legend, but… but when they did come. They were known for doing heavy damage to this path, sometimes even blocking it off for months at a time on the worse cases. Something, I did not want nor need right now.

    Nor was it something that poor Lillipup needed right now. Why did I let this happen…

    Trying to get away from the main source of falling rocks I stayed a decent distance away from the walls. Eventually, the earthquake would finally wind down as we all came out of our hiding spots. It had been a weak one, admittedly, but there was still some damage had. Reconvening on the path, we walked forward before seeing how today had went sour.

    It was the bridge. The same bridge that both Riley and I had first come here using. All that remained were the two pillars on each side, both of which originally acting as grounders to keep it within place.

    The earthquake had taken it out, leaving me without a method of moving forward. Both Emolga and Dunsparce could head on over, through both the ground and the air, but I was stuck on this side of the bridge. We all turned around and looked at each other, wondering what to do in a situation such as this.

    “Great. Just great,” she said, angering brimming in her face. “Of course the bridge had to break down right here, right as we were approaching where that poor Lillipup had been brought.”

    “Hey, are you okay?” I asked, putting on that fake voice everyone took so truthfully. She looked at me for a moment as if she was about ready to say something, before dropping it. Usually, she was not like this at all, being the positive one in our group. I had not seen this side of her since the Pawniard brother’s attack on Dunsparce now several months back, and it was honestly starting to concern me.

    “Whatever then. Let’s find another way, I guess. Spark, do you have any ideas as to how we can get you over this ridge?”

    I tried to think of something, anything that could possibly work, but all my mind drew was a blank. Getting slightly mad at myself, I picked up a rock and threw it at the water. Of course this earthquake had to happen right as—

    Wait. Why did the rock not bounce off of anything?

    Deciding to investigate this further, I dropped my bag and started walking towards the edge of the waterfall. Picking up another rock, throwing it up and down in the air a few times to get a good grip on it, I threw it in to make sure the last one was not a fluke. It was not. The waterfall hid a cave behind it, a cave that might lead us to the other side of this ridge.

    Turning around, I raised my voice and said, “Hey guys! I found a possible way through! There’s a cave through the waterfall!”

    Both Dunsparce and Emolga broke away from the little conversation they were having, and walked over to where I was. She said, “Spark… are you sure? That seems a bit risky, with the river flowing out and all…”

    “Here, let me show you.” Deciding actions spoke better than words, I picked up another rock and threw it in. Her eyes widened as it became clear that I was not speaking out of fatigue.

    “Well I…” she started, before hesitating as if to quickly arrange her words. “Look, I’m sorry, to put it bluntly. It’s been a long day, and I shouldn’t have doubted you. It’s just… we’re all on edge after both yesterday and what has happened today, and I didn’t want to take any risks.”

    Holding back any reaction to the validity of Emolga’s concerns, I said, “Look, it’s… it’s fine. Tragedy tends to do that to pokémon, you know? Besides, we all are on edge right now, and for a good reason. Let’s just get a move on, okay?”

    Having heard my words, she walked off. We all needed a second to get ready to take the dive into the place behind the waterfall. Taking a moment to make sure Emolga had walked off far enough away so she could not see me, I shook my head in slight anger. This felt so hard to pull off, without Riley here by my side. But, I knew I had to persevere, otherwise…

    I was not going to think about that. All I had to do was persevere through this, and everything would be fine.

    We all went into the cavern one by one, following Dunsparce getting our bags in their through bringing them in through the ground. I had to hold back any emotions that wished to let themselves out as we all walked forward; the area around us actively shifted into a maze of tunnels and labyrinths, much to my and everyone’s chagrin. I would have to keep walking, when I wanted to sit down and rest for a second, because that was life.

    Trying to keep myself together, and noticing everyone’s aspirated expressions, we walked.

    All I could hope was that I would still be able to hold myself together by the end of it.

Snivy’s POV

    Quickly glancing behind myself again in paranoia of them having actually gotten over, I found nothing. Sighing under my breath, thankful I had not seen them, I faced forward again. In front of me, the rendezvous point Pansear had set in the note he ghost wrote for me laid.

    I was illiterate, at least in runes, so he obliged to write it in my place. Not happily, of course, but he still obliged to my request.

    As we continued walking, I eventually said, “Okay, I think we have arrived. I did not seeing them tailing us or anything of that sort, so they probably got redirected into that cave we found earlier.”

    Tyrunt, putting down the bags of supplies he had been carrying, said, “Good. Nice to know that one of your plans actually had at least some success, after that… whole fun thing with the village down south.”

    Ah, that. That whole fun thing, involving the angry villagers. Why, oh why, oh why…

    Sighing, trying to not let the repressed memory surface, I started setting up camp. The Lillipup, who was still fighting against the bag, made it clear he was not going to let up anytime soon. As we originally walked from the path to the crossroads, he had woken up and tried viciously to break from Pansear’s grasp. So, in response, we did the only thing we could think of.

    We bagged him. Of course, the top was left open slightly as to make sure the poor thing did not suffocate, but besides that, he was basically stuck in a prison cell. To be honest, I felt bad for him, having to be the victim in this attempt of mine to get something that belongs to me back. But, it was how it was.

    It was not gonna be a fun next few hours, and that was for absolute sure as I watched and waited for that Pikachu to come out of the woods.

    I waited, hoping for this all to be over soon, so I could move on with my search.

Spark’s POV

    As we walked through the dungeon, all that off-set the almost off-putting silence was the occasional cheery line made by Emolga. A cheery line that would, more often than not, get ignored and be left to ring along the desolate halls of this place. The entire dungeon looked like a polar opposite of the Ragged Mountains, with all the walls tinted blues and tans. I had been told stories in the past about how dungeons took from the surrounding landscape to create their interior, and I guessed this was one of those cases with the waterfall.

    However, it was managing to prove much more of a challenge than both Emolga and I’s typing advantages, even in spite of our advantages. One example was a Gyarados that had held us up for way too long, giving them more time than I would of liked. Time, in which that Snivy was preparing for my arrival and Lillipup was suffering. Time in which my regrets for attempting to lunge at her and tripping on a log, instead of waiting for a clearer shot, mounted and built upon eachother.

    Eventually, we would find our way out as the world of labyrinths and tunnels shifted back into one solitary hall. It lead out into the other waterfall, the one present on the other side of the Ragged Mountains. Dunsparce moved both of our bags over as Emolga and I crossed past the waterfall.

    I quickly dashed through the streaming water and found myself falling face first into the dirt. As I stood up, I saw Emolga soaring above me and Dunsparce emerge out of the ground with both of our bags dry, onto land.

    “Well, that was something, wasn’t it?” I said as I quickly shook off the water that had accumulated on to me.

    Emolga, with a slight chuckle of disbelief towards the short distance crossed, said, “I guess you could say that…” she shook her head. “It’s funny, to think an hour or two ago, we were only over there…”

    “Yeah, and that’s why we need to be fast about not giving them any more time then they have been given to prepare.” I said, grabbing my bag off the ground and going through it, making sure everything was in order.

    We more than likely would had continued talking, had the screaming not begun. A series of loud barks for help from the woods that caused us to share glances. We immediately started running towards the source after a moment, running off of fear of what had happened to him. After only several minutes of jogging as fast as possible towards the source, trying to haul the bag as fast as possible, we came face to face with the perpetrator.

    It was that Snivy, and two other pokémon that were presumably working with her, standing by her side. They almost did not notice my presence, being held up by what looked like them holding a bag; I almost contemplated making a attempt to rush them, until I noticed her turn around from the commotion to face me.

    “So, I see the rodent and his two best buds decided to come over and get that Herdier’s son back. I would’ve preferred you not bring others into this, but it is what it is. Hey, Pansear and Tyrunt, the little mouse himself has arrived, and he has friends!”

    Both of them turned around, holding a bag with a rapidly moving object inside of it. A object, that soon dawned on me had to be Lillipup. It had to be Lillipup, being forcefully kept in that bag. Oh, how disgusting are these pokémon.

    “Oh, you are so disgusting, why I—” Emolga started to say, before I stopped her.

    Whispering, I made an active effort to keep her from ruining any chances we had. “Listen, we can’t start burning bridges yet. I… really don’t want to see Herdier having to hear that he will never seen his son again because we couldn’t keep quiet, okay?”

    She, albeit hesitantly, dropped her aggressiveness as Snivy’s coterie approached us. Every part of me wanted to wipe that smirk expression on her face, but I knew I could not. Because if I did, I was afraid what these sick, sick pokémon would do to Lillipup.

    With a slight smirk on her face, she approached me and said, “Oh, glad to see you decided to show up. Was starting to wonder where you were, or if you were even coming… glad to see you didn’t get distracted.”

    Holding back a growl, I asked, “Is that all you have to say to me, petty words? Or are you going to fulfill your end of the bargain, like you promised me you would on that note of yours?”

    The smirk weaned off of her face, before she said, “Oh, I would be more then willing to do so, if all my stuff is returned right here and now.”

    I almost went to grab the image out of my bag, before I heard Emolga calling me over. “Hey, Spark, can we talk for a second over here, if you will.” 

    Diverting my attention away from Snivy, much to her apparent displeasure, I walked over. Once I made it, I put my bag down and asked, “Oh, uh… what is it, Emolga?” 

    “It’s something semi-important, but,” she said, while motioning towards the other group converging, “can we talk where they can’t hear us? I... really don’t want to risk anything, considering the circumstances.” 

    Seeing no real reason to protest, I followed her wishes. Picking up my bag containing my supplies and more importantly the image, while she carried the other one, we started walking. We made it a fair bit away from the ‘discussion grounds,’ but not far enough to where it looked like suspicious.

    “Okay, so... listen, since that whole thing did not work, what are we planning on doing involving getting Lillipup back? We need to think of something, otherwise the poor child is going to…” She shivered in fear, at the very thought of it.

    “I... really don’t have an answer to that. But, I would rather give up a piece of memorabilia than a child’s life any day, so I say we—” 

    “But here’s my question. What if it’s more than that? What if we forget, like everyone in Post Town?” 

    Hearing the possibility come up again brought back that feeling of insecurity. It was the same one I had felt last only a day ago. Trying to hold it back for a moment, I quickly got the image out and stared at it as she continued speaking. 

    “Listen, I know we value Lillipup’s life, but... we need to figure out why she had this. For all we know, Riley could be in actual danger right now back at his home, and this is the only lead we have!” 

    To be fair, it was odd that she held this image in her possession. Perhaps Emolga had a point here. Whatever reason she had them for surely could not be good.

    Giving in to her claims, I said, “Fine, fine. Let’s keep the image, I see what you mean. But, what else are we going to do?”

    She put on a small, but conniving smile. “I mean… all she asked for was the bag, didn’t she? Perhaps she might not notice the image’s absence, until we are long gone and ready to deal with her if she returns…”

    I uneasily rubbed my hand against my head, feeling a slight anxiety towards all of this. “Alright,” I said, “let’s try it. Sounds like it has a chance to work.”

    Picking my bag up again, with the contested image inside of it, I went back to where I was previously. Dunsparce, upon seeing me returning, stepped away from the bag he had protected while Emolga and I talked.

    “So, I’m assuming you didn’t just come here to throw petty, meaningless words at me, right? Am I going to get my bag back, or is this going to awry?” she asked as I approached, each one of her words bring my mind back to the topic of the image.

    Why did she care about it that much, anyways? What... what was so special about it? 

    Thinking my options over for a moment, I went with the most rational choice I could think of. “Yeah, yeah... I have it. Let me go grab that bag you felt the urge to kidnap a kid to get back.” 

    The words came out hoarsely, but she either did not notice or did not care enough to notice. I was hoping this was going to go by smoothly and she would not realize the absence of the image. Hopefully, I was going to be able to get away with this and have this whole crisis be averted.  

    As the two approached with the bag, grumbling to themselves, I stood still in anticipation. Unfortunately, I only noticed at the last minute I had forgotten to close one of the compartments; the compartment in which the image was once in. She noticed this after taking quick glance at it.

    A quick glance, that made me regret every decision I had made up until that point.

    “Oh. I see you’ve been perusing through my belongings?” all three of us cringed up as both Pansear and Tyrunt stopped walking. “Funny. I think I asked for the whole bag back, thank you very much.” 

    My expression wavered as this situation proved to get worse and worse. Snivy started looking through the bag as both of her allies stared at us grumbling things to themselves. Eventually, she came back up, staring straight at me. 

    “Oh. You...” she said, anger boiling out of her voice. “Oh, you little... what, did you find a little shiny and wanted to hold on to it or something! Why I’m going to—”

    “Yeah, and why do you care so much? Are you seriously demented enough to care more about an image than a poor child’s life?”

    That was the tipping point for her. A simple line, asking why she cared. A simple line, that set her off like there truly was no tomorrow.

    Right as I tried to back off, after realizing it was a bad decision to push as far as I had, she launched both of her vines straight at me. They almost managed to get me, but I was able to ward off their advance through purposeful disorientation, launching a ball of electricity to confuse them momentarily.

    Surviving the initial barrage, I made it a fair bit away from the chaos and saw both Pansear and Tyrunt come running in to join the fray. Everyone started fighting each other, without any reserve or hesitance. Emolga, for one, had started distracting Snivy from the sky. She constantly dodged barrages of leaves coming towards her as she attempted to attack from the sky. Taking in the madness that the whole situation had devolved into, something dawned on me. 

    Tyrunt had that bag in his hand. That bag, which held Lillipup. That’s the only leverage they had. And if they lost that... 

    Noticing Dunsparce rushing towards Tyrunt in the ground, I ran towards him in hopes that we could overwhelm him. Unfortunately, one factor had lapsed my mind. 

    A factor that punched me in the middle in the gut, before showing himself to be Pansear. He, with a slight smirk, asked me, “Oh, were you going somewhere? Sorry, but I’m afraid I can’t let that happen.” 

    Feeling anger building up inside of me, I charged. I was not going to allow some random bandit to cause any more pain for this child, whether he liked it or not. Rushing straight towards him, I jumped up in the air and slashed at him with my tail, hardened with a silvery glow. He took the hit, stumbling and grumbling backwards, but not reacting as badly as I expected.

    “Oh, that thing your species is known for having. I’m not sure whether you’re an idiot or what, since fire has a very well-known capacity to handle metal, but I guess I’m going to have to teach you the hard way.”

    Before I got a chance to try to keep up the pressure on him, he rushed at me with fist covered in flames. It singed the area around where it hit, leaving me off-balance and giving him an opportune
moment to sweep me straight off my feet, leaving my face to crash into the dirt.

    The disgusting, grimy dirt. The one that had made a joke of me multiple times at this point.

    “You really are a runt, you know that? You couldn’t even take down some measly fire-type, am I right?” he said, while circling around me, posing to attack any movement. “It’s funny, really, how I see pokémon like you claiming to be heroic all the time.”

    He hesitated for a moment, before continuing with a slight chuckle. “But, are you really? Or are you just—”

    That was the moment in which I saw Lillipup running past, distracting Pansear for the moment I needed him to be. I tackled him from the ground, before he had a moment to react, and started fighting him close up and personal. Slashing him with my tail, I jumped off of him to avoid a flame covered punch to the face. He put up a fair bit of resistance, but his failure was near certain once Dunsparce joined my side. We both continually barraged him from both sides, with strikes from both underground and from up top. I was heavily hit by some of his flames he would send out, leaving me feeling tired and starting to doubt my capacity to fight. But at the end of the day, he was the one that collapsed on the ground, in front of both Dunsparce and I. We both stood still, and looked towards Snivy, who was standing around looking straight at us. Feeling confident that this was finished, I asked her, “So, do you know when to give up, or are we going to have to deal with you, too?”

    She stared at me, with what I thought at first was disbelief. Her eyes brought themselves downwards, staring at the ground the ground as I waited for a response.

    “Hah… hah… hah…”

    Put off by the sudden laughter, I hesitantly walked forwards. “You… you really are mad, right?”

    “hahahahaha… oh, you’re so gullible, aren’t you?”

    I tried to figure out any reason as to why she was saying this, before I finally saw Tyrunt in the background. Tyrunt, carrying a bag with a moving thing inside of it.

    My focus slipped from Snivy for just one second as I screamed, “Emolga! No—”

    Suddenly, a giant, ringing pain came over my right side as I stumbled backwards. Dunsparce started running off as I saw Pansear approach me. I tried to dodge his next punch, but fatigue from both earlier today and from the fight caused me to stumble. I fell to the ground, seeing the double images of faces looking down at me from above.

    This… was all one giant mistake. One, giant, fatal error.

    She looked down at me, her with a sort of pity. One that would be given to an inferior. With a slight chuckle, she said, “Hahahaha… you know, it’s funny. There’s a little saying I like to follow, that I figure I might as well share with you. Sometimes, battles don’t come up to who has more power. Sometimes, they come up to who can deceive the other best.”

    “Heroes don’t win battles. Deceit wins battles. Now rest tight, little runt.”

    And with that, along with jarring pain on my face, everything started fade away. I could barely hear anything, but the last few words they said while they ran off as I lost consciousness.

    “Hey Snivy, we need to be quick! I see a group approaching from the distance! Where… where are we going?”

    “We’re are going down to… to…”

    Eventually, I completely lost consciousness as I heard both the sounds of running, and of regret.

    …

    …

    …

    As I slowly opened my eyes again, all I could see was darkness. Everything was black as far as I could see around me. It was exactly like that one dream, yet without anybody within view able distance. Slowly getting up, I looked around for somebody, or anybody in the general vicinity. I walked around for what felt like a while, but with no results.

    “Hahahaha…” she chuckled, with both of her large orange-red eyes staring straight at me.

    Feeling a intense rage come back over me, I started trying to chase her. She ran, just faster than however fast I could go. This day felt like it would never end as she kept going and going, faster and faster and faster.

    “Come after me, little Spark. You hate me, don’t you? You despise me…” she said, running faster than I ever possibly could keep up with. “Come and take me down, like you so desire to…”

    Seething with rage, I continued to give chase. The landscape turned from pure blackness to the path, and the weather, the constant roar of lightning. She irritatingly chuckled near constantly, demeaning me and everything I had been through.

    “Stop! You monster! Stop running already!”

    I did not care how irrational this was. I did not care that she was not real. I wanted revenge. Because I hated her.

    She turned around and smirked at me. “Okay, whatever you say.”

    Suddenly, she stopped as everything melted back into the backdrop of a dark abyss. She stared at me, with both of her bulbous eyes, making me hesitate for a moment. Only for a moment though as I lunged with her without any haste nor hesitation.

    I was not going to make the same mistake I made then, letting her get away. Not now.

    Angry towards her, and everything about her, I said, “Okay, now you’re going to—”

    “Wait…” I said, now seeing nothing where she once was, but more black, “where did you…?”

    “hah… hah… hah…”

    The laughing again. The demented, demeaning laughing. The one that seemed to follow me wherever I went.

    She chuckled, from what sounded like everywhere yet nowhere. “You really are gullible. You thought that I was really here?”

    “Come… come out here!” I said, “Stop hiding and fight me!”

    “Oh, you’re so, so gullible. It’s hilarious. hahahahaha…”

    “Stop! No, stop!” I said, while futilely trying to cover my ears.

    “Hahahaha, it’s so, so funny… how you try to resist.”

    “Stop! Make it stop!” I said, screaming, while buckling over to the ground and trying everything to make the laughing go away.

    “Hahahahahahahahaha! It’s so funny!”

    W-why…

    Why does it never end…

    Please… stop, stop!

    Please, make the pain go away! Please!

    W-why does everything go wrong…

    Why… why…

    why…

    …

    …

    …

Riley’s POV

    When I woke up from rest, I expected to see sunlight. Instead, I woke up to both darkness and loud, almost racketing noises outside. Instinctually, I held on tighter to my pillow to try to block out noise.

    “Oh, for Arceus’ sake, it can’t be morning yet, can it?” I said, mumbling words out as I gave in and got up. Taking a moment to sigh at the great start to the day, I looked around at the rest of my room, still unused to being back here.

    Wondering what could possibly be so bad I walked up to my window. Barely seeing anything other then the faint orange outline of something in the distance, I pulled up the window, to find…

    A skyscraper. Covered in orange and red flames, dancing around it and eating it whole.