Into the Unown (Pokemon Fanfiction OC)

Chapter 273

Miles stood, humming by the sidewalk and waiting for the lights to turn green“Gar! Gengar!”

“Hmm? Whazzat, Azzy?” He looked down to see where the Gengar was pointing to see his shoelaces undone. “Thanks buddy, don’t wanna accidentally trip and ruin the flowers now do we?” The man chuckled as he bent down to tie his shoes.

But in the midst of it all, he heard a sharp screech punctuate the air, followed by frantic honks and panicked cries.

Looking up, Miles saw a massive blur, tearing petals from his bouquet and just barely grazing the tip of his head as a truck zoomed past the still-red light and swerved into oncoming traffic in a spectacular crash.

The people around him yelled out in distress. Then, an explosion from whatever payload the truck was carrying in its trailer.

“Freaking heck…”

“Gen! Gengar!”

“I know, Azzy. We should go and help.”

“Gar!” But the living shadow shook her head, then pointed at the bouquet of flowers in Miles’ hands.

“Right, we’re also late for mom’s birthday…” With a sigh, Miles fingered the surface of his phone while surveying the scene of the accident. He could see several people rushing in to help extricate the victims, some making calls while others had their cameras pointed at the commotion, as if the tragedy was some exotic spectacle to be filmed. How reprehensible…

“If I butt in now, I’m just gonna add to the chaos.” Further assessing his immediate surroundings, he could see a young woman yelling into her phone in frustration just a few paces away from him, urging the operator on the other side to send help as soon as possible.

“Hey, uh…” Miles waved as he approached the woman.

“What d’ya want?!”

Miles winced. “N-no I just— I was just wondering if you were planning to stick around until the cops arrive?”

The woman gave the stranger in front of her a suspicious frown. “Yeah? What’s it to ya?”

Miles responded with an innocent smile and reached into his pockets to produce a notepad where he proceeded to write his contact details onto.

“Because I can’t stick around. So if you’re okay with it, could you pass on my number to the police later? In case they need an extra witness statement or something, y’know?”

The woman’s frown deepened, then twisted into a mirthful smirk. “Heh. Y’know, if this was a pick up, then I gotta give you a gold star for innovation.”

Miles flinched, then panicked. “N-No! That’s not— I’m not that much of a boor— I mean, I’m late for my mom’s birthday party so I can’t stick around and I figured—”

The woman cackled. “Oh relax, scout boy… I was just joshing.”

“Scout boy?”

“Y’know, like a boy scout? Anyways, sure. I’ll pass your detes along if the coppers ask for it.” She swiped the note in Miles’ hand before he could respond. “Go on now, your little friend there’s looking impatient.”

Miles looked over. “Sorry, Azzy. Let’s get going. And thanks, umm…”

“Amber. Like in Jurassic Park? Na-nana, na-na~” The woman laughed then began singing the movie’s iconic theme song completely off-key. Miles laughed along with her.

“Thanks, Amber. I’m—”

“Miles. I know, it’s on the note. Wish your mom a happy birthday for me will ya?”

“Sure, will do!”

***

“Es…” Espy shook her head in exasperation.

She had finally finished gathering all of her scattered family members, leaving the big orange oaf for last, thinking that their eldest should be mature enough to handle himself for a little bit at least.

But once she finally got around to retrieving him, what did she find? A berserked Nitey rampaging against nothingness. Worse still, the fool had somehow stumbled upon Dhelmise at some point and was now using that mindless beast as a weapon, swinging the bundle of steel and seaweed around in the dark like it was an oversized flail.

Espy sighed. She never cared much about Azzy’s pet project, but seeing the abomination desperately screeching out in distress was pitiable nonetheless.

“Es!” She admonished, calling for the petulant Dragonite to stop, only to be thoroughly ignored. “Es, espeon!” Espy cried again, this time with a healthy stab of Extrasensory just for good measure.

“DRAGOOOO!!!” The Dragonite howled in pain and, in a flash of red, turned his maddened gaze towards his assailant.

Great, the idiot had put himself in an Outrage as well. “Es.” With a flare of her Aura, Espy called for her team to gather and linked their minds together in a Psychic network. Just in time for an Anchor Shot to come her way and for Sir Clodington to block it for her.

“Kukuku… Cro!” Brucey broke out into a Kage Bunshin, then proceeded to bombard Nitey with an omnidirectional Screech and Supersonic combo.

The bright side to their predicament was that an Outraged Nitey was a feeble minded Nitey. Meaning, the Dragonite’s mental fortitude wasn’t strong enough to resist status effects — another reason why Nina banned him from using that move usually.

“Dragoooo…” Nitey groaned and pressed his palms against his ears, his face all scrunched up in displeasure. Espy amplified that displeasure with another healthy dose of Extrasensory.

“Clod! CLOOOOD!” Meanwhile, Sir Clodington fervently called out to his liege, urging him to quell his anger. An endeavour further aided by Rinny who doused his big bro with a splash of water, finally dispelling the red in his eyes.

“Nite?” The big oaf looked around in confusion, then dropped Dhelmise with a dull thud, the Ghost-plant shrivelling up into a tightly wound bundle in fear of the ordeal it had just been subjected to.

“Es! Espeon, es!”

“Nite? Drago, dragonite!”

Nitey tackled his sister with a suffocating embrace, sobbing in relief all the while. “Nite! Dragonite, niiiiiiite!”

Espy scowled as a rain of tears and snot stained her lustrous coat. Then, with a swipe of Psycho Cut at his slimy nose, managed to get Nitey to let go of her and back off with an aggrieved yelp. 

“Es! Espeon es-es!” She admonished, telling the big orange oaf to get ahold of himself and set a good example for his juniors.

“Niiite! Dragonite, nite!” Nitey wiggled his stubby tail in protest, saying that he missed everyone and that he thought he had lost them for good.

“Es! Espeon!” Espy’s rebuke was that knowing Nitey, he probably didn’t even try to look for them and just charged straight towards Nina.

Nitey pouted and averted his gaze in shame. Then, just as abruptly, jolted and began pestering Espy again. “Nite! Dragonite, dragonite-nite!” Where was Nina, did Espy know? And he couldn’t see Azzy either, nor could he sense her.

Espy rolled her eyes. The answer to those questions was simple. Nina was probably beyond this veil of shadows holding them in place and Azzy was most likely with her since she was attached to the girl’s shadow from the very start.

With a nudge of her head, Espy gestured towards the familiar looking backpack being clutched in Brucey’s claws, the Crobat also looked quite restless at being away from their human. 

“Es, espeon-es.” Whoever the perpetrator was, they were only able to separate Nina from her Pokemon and belongings. But shadows formed the core of their soul and could only be removed through death.

The Pokemon all cried out in tandem, imploring Espy to come up with a solution. Without Nina around, everyone defaulted to their beautiful and glorious big sis on what to do since none of them were smart enough to understand what was going on.

The haughty Espeon puffed her chest up with a smirk. Honestly, what would this hopeless bunch do without her.

After pulling Nitey into her Psychic network as well, Espy relayed her thoughts to the team and got everyone up to speed. Then, she walked them through her plan.

The Espeon explained how they were basically just trapped in a domain. More specifically, a very powerful Dark and Ghost domain — the strongest she had ever seen, even when compared to that Alpha Fire-Bug that Nitey just battled recently.

And what did one do when they found themselves in a Pokemon’s domain? Simple, they just had to beat the owner of said domain.

“Drago! Drago-nite!” But Nitey argued that he couldn’t even see anything in this pesky darkness.

Espy sighed once more and shut her eyes in concentration. She warned the team that once this move was active, she would be completely useless in battle. Because just activating it took all of her power and concentration. 

The chatter across the team’s Psychic network muted as Espy redirected the majority of her mental bandwidth into her Miracle Eye. Thus, with a flare of her Aura, a slit opened up in the dark, and a singular silver eye illuminated the air like the glow of moonlight amidst a starless night.

And speaking of moonlight, it was actually Azuki who helped her realise this move. Because as with all Pokemon moves, visualisation was key. Which was why Nitey and Rinny, with their boundless imaginations, were such fast learners.

Espy was highly intelligent, but she was too bound by conventional logic. So when she was venting to her boyfriend about her difficulties in materialising Miracle Eye, the Umbreon broke out into poetry about how he so dearly wished for his muse’s radiant eyes to replace the silver moon high above, so that he may admire her beautiful gaze even during those cold and lonely nights they were apart — forming the basis for Espy’s interpretation of Miracle Eye.

Azuki was quite romantic that way. But it was precisely his poetic soul that so endeared the juvenile Espeon to him. In other words, Espy liked her boys with thick eyeliner, chapped lips and cheap piercings as Nina would put it.

The moment that Espy’s Miracle Eye took hold, the true face of the domain was revealed to her; over a hundred purple wisps surrounding them on every side, a sinister green light forming their core which all joined together to draw a constellation of demonic faces sneering down at them in contempt.

“Es…” Espy hissed and used the last of her mental prowess to share her sight with her family, just in time for the shadows to writhe and a rain of Shadow Balls to fall down on them.

“DRAGOOO!!!” Nitey roared, commanding his siblings to defend Espy at all cost. 

“CLOOOD!!!”

“Riiiin~♪” 

The team tightened their formation around Espy while Rinny sang and Clody cried out for battle. The Mystic Water Pendant around the Primarina’s collar gleamed as the Dragon Scale embedded onto the Clodsire’s forehead shined. Whirlpool and Sandstorm combined to form a vortex of mud to intercept the barrage of Darkness.

“Cro! Crobat!” Meanwhile, Brucey scattered into a hundred clones and charged towards the army of purple wisps, each bearing within them a payload of sticky Poison.

Even Zed helped out, by siphoning Type Energy from the enemy’s domain and converting it into a kaleidoscope of elements that helped to intercept the ongoing barrage — Hidden Power.

As that was going on, Nitey was defending the incapacitated Dhelmise with his own body — the good-natured Dragonite felt bad about how he treated Dhelmise earlier. Because, unruly or not, the Ghost-plant was still part of the family.

“Nite! Drago-nite!” The Dragonite urged Dhelmise to go join the rest of their team. But after remembering that the Ghost-plant was deaf and that Azzy wasn’t around, he simply grabbed hold of the struggling seaweed by the anchor and tossed him over to where the others were.

“DRAGOOOO!!!” Nitey then roared and broke out into a Dragon Dance, summoning the final vestiges of his reserves for one more Draco Meteor. This time, he made sure to aim it at the largest cluster of purple wisps he could see.

“Es! Espeon!” Espy cried, urging Rinny to establish a Misty Terrain. The enemy was weak to Fairy, she surmised, after using Miracle Eye to analyze the mysterious Pokemon’s Type composition — Ghost and Dark as it turned out.

“Primaaa~♪ Rinaaaa~♪” The diva sang, conjuring a swirling pink mist to envelop his family. 

“S̶̡̛̱̪͈̣͕̫̳̘̣͚̙̞̱̫̖͐̎̓̈́͊p̴͕͈̻̲̥͇͉̰͉̲̮̓̾̑̄̊̈̆͛͗̑̅ͅi̸̡̡̺̙̱̩̦̩̮͙͓̝̥̝̞͋͌̈́̎̇̀̊͘͘̕i̷̹̜̹͈͕̞̗̪̮̝͙̋͜ì̸̛̳͈͔̳̘̅̈́̈̽͗̍̉͗̚̕į̴̰̥͍͈̺̹̘̗͔͚͍̌́͆́̇͛̚͜ͅi̸̧͍̼͔͂̓̉̅̆̇̆̄̈́͗̐̂̽̈́͂͘̕ï̵̢̜͕̟̭͓͚͕̦͈̰͗̑͆̉̓̈͊̀̈́̎̎̓͝ͅǐ̴̢͉̭̜̪̰͇͈̙̭͈̤̟̮͐͜ȉ̶̯̜̝̫͘i̸͕̦͖̹̫͎͛́́̀̈̈́̊̈́̋͑̕͘͠͝͝͝͝į̴͇̖̯̥̬̯̪̝͊́̋̈́͊̈́͊̏̀́́̿̈́͜i̷̞͈̺̼͗͊̓͒͊̈́̾͊̈̅͝!̴͚̾̓̿̎̽̆̈́̅̓̒̽͒̃̏͝͝!̵̨̜̭͙͇̠̱̞͉̀̍́!̴̝̞̪̊̇ͅ” 

And for the first time since the battle began, the darkness shrunk away and their captor cried out in pain; the hauntingly eerie wail of over a hundred tortured souls pervaded their minds — a resentful cry filled with pure hatred for all that was living and good.

Nina’s Pokemon shuddered, feeling a discomforting dread deep within their core.

“NIIIIITE!!!” But then, a fierce Draconic Aura flared, filling their hearts with courage once more as thoughts of a crying Nina, stranded and alone, filled their minds. They had to prevail. Individually, they were strong but together, they were invincible. Nothing could get in the way of their familial bonds!

The Pokemon cried out in affirmation and renewed their assault on the mysterious foe.

***

Author's note:

Cabbage is delicious. You can eat it cooked or raw, great when stewed, grilled or simply stir fried.

I don't know why older literature like to paint it as being peasant feed. Just because something is accessible, doesn't make it uncouth.

And it's so economical as well. I pretty much always buy myself a head of cabbage when I go grocery shopping these days.

Cauliflower is great too but they're so damn expensive these days. I blame the vegans and their obssession with cauliflower rice.