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The Dark Type	By : Manifest Destiny Category: Pokemon > General Views: 36315 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon. Pokemon is copy write by GameFreak, INC. and Nintendo. I make no money from this story, nor do I seek any.

Chapter List
- 27
- 28
- 29
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Chapter 28: Out of Control
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A sharp, stabbing pain shooting up her arm jolted Rikalia awake. The Sneasel looked down at the claws on her right paw, both of which had been gnawed into misshapen, dull hooks. She could see streaks of red running through her white fur and taste blood in her mouth. Rikalia winced as she looked over the damage she had done to herself in her sleep.
This is really bad… What did I do…?
She sat up and noticed she was alone in the tent, so she got to work doing her best to clean and trim the claws on her right paw back to working order. Her other claws were of little help; they were still dulled from the last time her nervous habit had gotten the best of her. She carefully bit and tore off the loose bits of her ruined claws and licked the blood from her fur as best she could. Her efforts left her with thin, pale imitations of what used to be her claws. They would take some time to regrow on their own, but could be quickly mended if she were to be brought to a Pokémon Center for care.
I can’t do that… he’ll know I did this to myself…
From inside the tent, Rikalia could hear Iruni talking about her to someone else. “You guys can get to work once she wakes up.”
“Who else is up?” she asked herself.
She put on her armguard, double-checking that her ball was still locked in its socket, and stuck her head out of the tent. Rikalia saw Iruni pointing to his Pokédex, showing something to her first teammate, Karros. It was uncharacteristic of the Houndour to wake up before her, but he seemed very much alert and attentive to whatever Iruni was explaining to him.
He must be taking this “evolving” thing seriously.
“Our best time to leave will be in a few hours, so—” Iruni heard Rikalia step out of the tent and walk over next to him. “Good morning, Rika,” he said to her. “Sleep okay?”
“I guess,” she said, trying to keep her right hand out of his sight. Her night had been filled with many anxious and worried thoughts. She wasn’t sure when she had fallen asleep or how long she had actually slept for. “Any breakfast left?”
While she ate, Rikalia listened to Iruni explain his plans for their impending trip underground through what was known as “Diglett’s Tunnel”.
They were currently camped out on a stretch of land east of Vermilion City, lined with trees and tall grasses. The entrance to the underground passage was fairly close by, according to Iruni’s description, and the tunnel would lead them through the mountains to the other side of the region much faster than going around them. The trip was expected to take them five days, four of them spent entirely underground.
The thought of that brought unpleasant memories rushing back to Rikalia, and she couldn’t help but wonder why Iruni was being so insistent on this particular route. After all, he had experienced much more of the unforgiving dark underground than she had.
Beside her, Karros began sniffing her right paw as their trainer continued to talk, no doubt picking up the scent of fresh blood that still clung to her fur. He stared at her with concern on his face, but she quietly told him to not bring it up.
“If we leave by ten o’clock, we’ll be right in the thick of it by noon,” Iruni said, now gesturing to a map of the cave system he had bought in town the previous day. The main path through the cave system was very long, but simple; it was mostly a straight shot from one entrance to the other. All around and intersecting with the main tunnel were smaller connecting pathways that burrowing Pokémon travel along. Iruni pointed to an intersection where many small paths branched off of the main underground road, “Around then is just about the time that Diglett and Dugtrio go to sleep for the day. That’ll be when we go hunting, Kar.”
“I’ll be there too,” Rikalia reminded him.
“Of course,” Iruni smiled. “You and Atanya will be with me while Kar takes the lead. He should be drawing the most attention, but if any little moles get past him, you two can send them packing.”
“But why aren’t I fighting with Karros at the same time?” she asked.
“I want to get as many of you guys evolved as soon as possible,” Iruni pointed to the lineup of the stowed Poké Balls attached to his belt, “and Karros is the closest. This is his time to shine, and Atanya’s next. I’d like it for the two of them to be evolved by the time we’re out of the tunnels.”
“When will it be my turn?” groaned Rikalia, annoyed she was put behind one of the newcomers in their group.
“That I don’t know, Rika. Sneasel evolve differently to how Houndour or Chikorita do; they do so after learning how to use a certain tool well enough.”
“What is it?” Rikalia sat forward and waited eagerly for his answer.
“The shed claw from another of your species,” Iruni told her. “It’s been observed in captivity and in the wild that Sneasel carry discarded sharp claws from their elders, and when they can use them as well as their own claws, they evolve into Weavile. The exact reasoning behind it isn’t fully understood, but…”
She had stopped listening halfway through his explanation, slumping down where she sat. His answer was something that was unattainable as far as she knew. If she had stayed with her family and her own kind, it would have been fairly easy to find a claw for herself. If she were still with them though, she wouldn’t be with her friends and human trainer, and despite the hardships and looming sense of worry she constantly felt, Rikalia couldn’t bring herself to think that she would be better off anywhere else.
“Hey,” Iruni got her attention back. “You okay?”
“What about…” she started, looking down at her paws. “Could I use one of my own?”
“I think there’s been evidence of solitary Sneasel evolving without a pack to give them a claw to practice with. How are your claws? Still taking good care of them?” he asked, trying to get a better look at his Sneasel’s hands.
“Yeah, they’re fine.”
“Then I don’t know what to tell you other than keep any that might fall off on their own,” he said, apologetically rubbing her head. “If we meet another trainer with a Sneasel or Weavile, maybe they can help us out.”
Iruni stood up and pulled a Poké Ball from his belt, releasing Kreen. The Pidgey took to the air and circled above the campsite.
“I’m going back into town for a little while to pick up some extra supplies, just in case,” he said. Iruni whistled for Kreen to come down and accompany him on his short errand. The Tiny Bird descended quickly, landing on the ground in front of his trainer.
“You won’t see much action underground,” he told his avian Pokémon, “so we’ll try and get some training done for you this morning while we’re out stocking up.” Kreen cooed and flew up and landed on Iruni’s shoulder, ready to go. “While we’re gone,” Iruni continued, looking back to the Dark types present, “the two of you should try and work together and figure out how to use your Dark Pulses like the other can.”
Rikalia was a bit surprised; she had forgotten that Iruni wanted her to even attempt such a thing. Thinking back on it however, she soon remembered why the prospect was put on hold. Not long after Karros had been taught Dark Pulse, they had fallen into the underground tunnels of the Ruins of Alph, and they hadn’t had a chance to try since.
Karros sat up straight and nodded sharply. “I won’t let you down,” he spoke firmly and adamantly.
“I’m sure you’ll figure it out,” Iruni said, petting Karros’ head. “Keep an eye on the camp while I’m gone. We’re still looking to leave by ten, so I’ll try and be back before then.”
With her left hand, Rikalia waved goodbye to her trainer as he walked down the road. Once Iruni was out of sight, she could feel a strange sense of unease crawl up her back, like something staring her down from behind. Before Rikalia could turn around to see what it was, her right hand was grabbed and lifted up, twisting her arm uncomfortably. She looked behind her to see Karros gripping her arm between his jaws, eying her right paw intensely before glaring at her and growling quietly.
“Ow— Hey! What’s the matter with you?” she pulled her arm from his jaws easily; he hadn’t been biting down hard at all. Rikalia hopped up to her feet, hiding her right hand behind her again.
“I’m perfectly fine, Rikalia, but what about you?” Her Houndour friend continued to stare her down, barking out his words fiercely and loudly. “Are you taking any of this seriously? At all?”
“What do you mean, ‘this’?”
He snarled louder, “I can’t believe this! Not from you!” Karros took a short step toward her, forcing the Sneasel to take a step back. “You know what’s going on as much as I do and you’re still determined to act like a selfish child. Look at yourself; you made Iruni go out and get you that ridiculous armor to make you feel better and you’re still ruining yourself by destroying your own claws.”
“Shut up, Kar! You don’t know what’s going on!”
“Yes I do,” he said, stepping toward her again. “And I’ll tell you this; it doesn’t matter. Not right now.”
“Wh—What?”
“I saw your face when you came out of the tent,” Karros sat down in front of Rikalia as he spoke, still staring intensely at her. “You were surprised to see me awake before you, weren’t you?”
She kept quiet. Karros was much more perceptive than she gave him credit for.
“I thought so. You want to know why I’m taking this training that Iruni’s planned out for me so seriously?”
“… Fine, why?”
“Because I feel weak and helpless.” He leaned forward, “Remind you of someone?”
Rikalia looked down, unfamiliar with being forced into a corner like this.
“I know how overwhelming this whole ‘Celebi’ business is. It makes you feel so small and powerless when you think about it. The difference is that I’m not turning to self-mutilation as some twisted way of coping with all of my worries. I’m trying to better myself and get stronger so I don’t feel that way anymore.” Karros huffed, his words hanging in the air for a moment before continuing. “And here you are, focusing on ‘you and him’ instead of the bigger picture.”
Her head snapped up and she locked eyes with the Houndour, “How do you know about that? Who told you?”
“You’re not exactly subtle, you know,” Karros said. “Look, I like you. I’ve liked you since Iruni took you in when he found you. Don’t take how hard I’m being on you right now as me hating you, because I don’t.” He lightly licked Rikalia on the cheek, “But please, try and put aside whatever feelings you might be having. They’re only going to complicate things and we all have enough to deal with right now.”
“I can’t just— stop, you know.”
“No, I bet you can’t. I don’t know how you feel, but I’ve seen how you act sometimes around him,” Karros said. “You’re going to have to focus on what matters right this second instead of what might happen in the future. If you don’t, we might not have a future.”
“But,” she protested, but then caught herself. As much as Rikalia didn’t like the idea, she couldn’t find any fault in his words. “Well, you know, it isn’t just Iruni that I’m always worried over…”
“Then you tackle each thing one at a time and don’t get stuck in your own head and make things worse. Ask for help too, why don’t you? You’ve never opened up to me about anything before. I can help. I want to help. I don’t want one of my teammates to be hurting and weakening themselves just because they’re trying to solve all of their problems alone.”
The Sneasel groaned, uncomfortable with hearing her faults being laid out in front of her. She raised her left paw to her mouth without thinking, but Karros slapped her hand down before she could chew on her still-recovering claws.
“Sorry, you’re right. I’ll try and… ask for help more often. Okay?”
“That’s better,” Karros nuzzled Rikalia lightly. “Come on, let’s try and train for a bit. If we both can get stronger, that’ll be one less thing to worry about.”
“What, just like that?” she asked curiously.
“We don’t have a lot of time before we leave for the tunnels, so yeah. Let’s do it.”
“You’re fine with training with me even if I’m,” she raised her right hand and showed off her overly-trimmed claws, “like this?”
“Of course,” Karros said. He got to his feet and motioned for Rikalia to follow him. “If you’re training, you’re not biting your claws.”
“How should we start?”
The two of them walked a short ways away from the campsite, making sure that it was still in view. Karros told Rikalia to watch as he demonstrated an offensive Dark Pulse. Much like how she watched him do so before they fell into the Ruins, Karros built up a swirling ball of black and purple energy in his mouth and released it in a spiraling beam toward a tree’s trunk. The blast tore away at the bark and bored a few inches into the wood, sending splinters flying into the grass.
“Last time,” Karros said, wisps of Dark energy still clinging to his muzzle, “you tried but couldn’t make a damaging attack with your Pulse.”
“Yeah, I know,” said Rikalia, once again impressed by the damage that Karros’ attack could cause.
“Do you know what it feels like when I use it?” he asked her. “It feels like a great mass of frustration and fear building up in my throat, and when I can’t hold it back anymore, I let go and it comes rushing out of me.”
“Frustration and fear?”
“Yep. Pretty common feelings, but when they build up, they can be pretty powerful, can’t they?”
She frowned, “I get it.”
“That wasn’t a jab at you, but I guess it could apply to this. I mean, look at that tree,” he nodded in its direction. “I focused on everything bothering me right now and let it strengthen me.”
“Well, I feel those things all the time, so why can’t I use Dark Pulses?” Rikalia asked.
“Have you tried making it an attack?” Karros asked. “I mean, really tried?”
“Nnnn… I guess not.”
Rikalia turned toward the same tree Karros had used as his target and looked down at her paws. She focused on the dull claws on her left hand, then to the armguard she wore, and then to the freshly ruined claws on her right.
So much has been awful lately. The ruins, that gym battle, the fire, Celebi, my claws…
She shut her eyes, her thoughts beginning to spin out of control.
Fear… frustration…
She clenched her hands, extending her claws, and focused on gathering all of her bad thoughts into a single mass.
I have to… put aside… how I feel… but I don’t want to!
“Rikalia, that’s it!” she heard Karros cheer. “Keep going!”
When she opened her eyes, she saw the same swirling purple and black energy held in between her two paws, waiting to be released.
“Wh— What do I do?” She started to panic as the collected Dark energy started to lose its shape.
“Pick a target and let go!”
Pick a target… pick a target…
Before she could focus on a point ahead of her, the Dark Pulse ruptured and rippled out around her, sending waves of Dark energy out and down along the ground in a large radius. The Sneasel stood in place, her arms shaking a little bit from the effort.
“That felt weird,” she said finally. “Are you okay?”
Karros was standing in the same spot, cringing from the blast, but otherwise looked unharmed. Beneath him the grass was still healthy and green, unlike the rest that surrounded Rikalia, which had become black and gray.
“I’m fine,” he said, looking around. “That was weird.”
“That’s what I said! You felt that too?”
“No, not at all.” Karros moved to the side, looking down at the ground. “That’s the weird part.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, you did it,” he began walking around the damaged ground. “You used the Pulse, but you released it all around you evenly instead of concentrated toward a single point. That’s actually pretty smart. I’ll have to remember to use it like that; I’ve been thinking of it like a Flamethrower. The weird thing is that I didn’t get hurt by it at all, even though I was in range. The ground underneath me wasn’t touched either.”
Rikalia thought about it, but couldn’t think of why such a thing would have happened.
“Can you even be hurt by it?” she asked. “We’re both Dark types.”
“Let’s find out.”
Karros gathered a small Dark Pulse and launched it at Rikalia suddenly, too quickly for her to dodge. The small beam struck her in the shoulder, sending her stumbling backward a few steps.
“Hey! That stung…” she rubbed her shoulder.
“Yes, and you definitely felt it…” Karros sat down and concentrated in thought.
“Why’d you want to hurt me?”
“The point wasn’t to hurt you, I just needed to see if I could, but that doesn’t…” Karros looked up, seemingly realizing something. “Wait. You don’t want to hurt me at all, do you?”
“Of course not.”
“Maybe that’s all it is…” Karros stood and circled the area once more. “Think back; remember back home, when Iruni first brought you in?”
“Yeah…?”
“What was something you wanted?”
“There wasn’t much, really. My life got so much better after coming to live with you guys that I didn’t really want much else. I had food, shelter, and a family.”
“No, not anything physical like that. Remember? Ruby was leaving the house and you still wanted to talk to Iruni.”
“Yeah…?”
“Well, didn’t that frustrate you? The one way you could talk to him being taken away?”
Rikalia gasped, finally understanding. “Was that all it was?”
“I think it might be!” Karros grinned. “And even before that, when you got stuck under that tree. What frustrated you then?”
“I… I wanted help… No, I wanted to be heard! And Iruni heard me from so far away!”
“That’s right! Think about it; you didn’t want to hurt me with that blast, so you didn’t because that’s what you intended. Your desperate cries for help were heard because that’s what you wanted. You wanted to talk to Iruni and couldn’t on your own, so that frustration came out as a Dark Pulse that Iruni could understand, all because that was your intent.”
“So it’s all about what I want?” Rikalia let the idea play about in her head, comparing it to her early memories of living with Iruni at his house in Mahogany. “I… think this is right, Kar! Ever since I learned my Pulses were hurting him, I think I started hurting him less because I wanted to hurt him less!”
“So, it’s a matter of will and intent…”
“This is great!” Rikalia jumped up in the air, grinning widely. “Now we know what to do to let you talk to Iruni, Kar!”
“Are you sure you want that?” Karros asked. “I might tell him you’re ruining your own claws.”
“Wha—! No! Don’t!” Her good mood was shattered in an instant. Rikalia ran over to her Houndour friend and frantically shook his shoulders. “Please, don’t tell him!”
“Hey, okay! Just stop for a second!” Karros shook his head once Rikalia had stopped her assault. “Look, you know that you shouldn’t be doing that, right?”
“Yes, but sometimes I just can’t help it.”
“I know,” said Karros. “Alright, how about this? If you keep doing it after I’ve managed to talk to him, you bet I’ll tell him.”
“But…” she looked down at the ground, defeated.
“I’m not doing this to get you into trouble, Rikalia. If he found out, sure he might be disappointed or even a little angry, but you and I both know he would drop whatever he’s doing and do whatever he could to help you.” Karros raised her head with his own, pushing his nose under her chin, “But like I said earlier, we all have enough to worry about with Celebi and these people that are trying to find her. We need to focus.”
Rikalia nodded to him and looked down at her own paws. “I have to be strong if we’re going to get through this.”
“Exactly.” Karros began to walk back to the camp. “Just make sure you hide your claws while they regrow, or ask for a trip to the Center before we go underground.”
“I’ll… just hide them,” she said, looking over her armguard as she walked. “Somehow.”
—————
Once Iruni returned from his short trip to Vermilion City, he and his Pokémon packed up their small campsite and began their journey to the southeastern entrance of Diglett’s Cave. Just before reaching the grassy fields of Kanto’s Route 11, Rikalia spotted from a distance something that she described as a rather unimpressive mound of dirt. As they neared it, she soon changed her tune. The cave’s entrance was down a shallow incline off of the main path, surrounded on all sides by a tall pile of dirt. The larger-than-usual molehill would seem unsafe to enter if not for the well-traveled walkway leading down to the underground, and the signboard advertising the cave as a safe passage from Vermilion to Pewter.
Entering the dark of the cave system, Iruni took off his sunglasses and let his eyes relax. He noticed that along the main pathway, there had been lights installed to better accommodate traffic through the cave. The lights were very dim compared to the sunlight still streaming in from the entranceway, but Iruni suspected they would be more than enough to light the way once they reached the inner depths of the underground passage.
Rikalia and Atanya walked along beside him on the dirt, while Karros was a few paces ahead, alert and ears up, sniffing the ground in search of targets to take out as he went.
A soft crackling sound down by his feet caught Iruni’s attention, and he looked down to find Rikalia coating her paws in a thick shell of ice that mimicked the shape of her claws.
“I know you’re eager,” he told her, “but I don’t think we’ll find many opponents this early on. You don’t plan on keeping that up the whole way, do you?”
“Yeah, I do.” She stubbornly took a step ahead of Iruni and Atanya, demanding to be second in their line. “I’m still not that good with my Ice moves, and this’ll help. I want to get better too.”
“Fair enough,” Iruni smiled. “Just don’t wear yourself out too much with all the ice though. You have your claws to rely on too.”
“I know,” she said. “I’ll be careful.”
The sound of flapping wings snagged Iruni’s attention. Following it up to the ceiling of the cave, he spotted some strange Pokémon he hadn’t seen before. Gathered around a small formation of stalactites were balls of blue fur with large noses and black wings. Iruni remembered that historically, only Diglett and Dugtrio lived in these caves, but there was clear evidence against that hanging just above him. He pulled his Pokédex from his pocket and identified the creatures, finding they were called “Woobat”.
As he looked over the various bits of information on the screen, Iruni found himself feeling a strange sense of unease. He had been out of commission as a Cartographer for quite some time due to being stuck underground. More time was then spent recovering, and then he had made the trip to Saffron City. After being inactive for so long, Iruni’s mind began to wander with questions about the job he had agreed to take on. Had he been replaced? Was he even still needed? Was traveling to Kanto a mistake? With Celebi now involved in his life, could he even manage to do what was required of him?
Stumbling over a plot of uneven dirt snapped him out of his mental roundabout.
“Are you okay?” asked Rikalia.
“Yeah.” He nodded, adjusting his backpack on his shoulders. Iruni was glad he had lost track of that line of thought; he was sure he’d have started asking himself questions he wouldn’t have liked the answers to.
“Let’s turn here,” Iruni spoke up, pointing to his left. “I recognize this path from the map. It should lead us where a lot of Diglett are.”
The hole in the cave’s wall was a little short, so Iruni had to crouch slightly to enter the new path. The ground was much rougher than the main pathway had been, and without the dim lights, much darker. Immediately Iruni felt a similar sensation to how he had felt underneath the Ruins of Alph, but Karros lit the way with a low flame burning in his mouth. Beside him, Atanya extended a vine from the buds on her neck and wrapped it around his wrist. From the glow of the small flame Iruni could see the silhouette of Rikalia and her ice-covered claws a few steps ahead of him, the light glittering slightly off of her icy gauntlets.
The group continued down the dark pathways for the better part of an hour, running into more opponents as they delved deeper into the maze of tunnels. Karros took on any aggressors far ahead of them, Rikalia caught any from their sides, and Atanya fought off any that dug their way up behind them. Slowly, the ceiling was getting progressively taller as they went, relieving Iruni’s steadily tiring back. They entered a tall, rounded chamber, whose walls were dotted with countless holes that had been made by Diglett coming and going. The reason why was apparent; hanging from the ceiling and dangling down toward the cave floor were many long tree roots. Some of the roots nearly reached down to the floor, where Iruni and his Pokémon spotted a few Diglett and Dugtrio nibbling on the lowest hanging roots.
Upon noticing the intruders’ arrival, the Mole Pokémon became very aggressive, growling at the new arrivals to leave one of their apparent feeding grounds.
“Just what I was hoping for,” Iruni knelt down and patted Karros on the back. “You ready? Try and rile them up!”
As Karros barked and took off into the feeding-dome of the Diglett, Iruni stepped back into the tunnel they had come from, ordering Rikalia and Atanya to stay close by.
Without the fire to help him see, Iruni was stood in the dark, listening to the sounds of his Houndour running through the loose dirt of the cave floor, howling and barking at the wild Pokémon, trying his best to attract their attention.
“What’s he doing?” asked Rikalia. “He’s not attacking them.”
“He’s doing what we laid out earlier this morning, before you woke up.” Iruni looked on out at the dark ahead of him, watching for the small bursts of flame and embers coming from Karros as he tried to draw in more and more targets. “He’s going to push himself past his limits fighting all these opponents at once.”
“Yeah, but how?”
“All those holes they’re digging crisscross under the dirt.” Iruni remembered how the walls and floor of the dome looked while it was illuminated, and with the many new Diglett and Dugtrio moving around trying to attack Karros, new tunnels were being formed. “Kar! Give us a little warning first, got it?”
“Warning?”
“It might get a bit bright and hot in here, so we’re going to need a little cover. Think you can make an ice wall?”
“I’ll— I’ll try!”
A few moments after Rikalia responded, a final howl came from the dark dome, and the glowing maw of Karros could be seen moving around in the room. The Houndour began lighting up the underground chamber more as the flame in his mouth grew in size and power.
“Now, Rika!”
“Ah!”
The light from Karros’ building fire shone into their passageway, and Iruni saw his Sneasel slam her paws onto the ground in front of them and conjure up a wall of ice tall enough to crouch behind. The effort left her out of breath but still standing.
“This’ll have to do,” Iruni said. “Atanya, get beside me. Kar! Go for it!”
Peeking over the edge of the barricade, Iruni watched Karros as he ran toward the center of the round chamber and plunged his head underneath the dirt into one of the fresh holes the Diglett had made. A faint rumbling could be felt from where they were crouched in the passage, then jets of fire began to shoot up from the floor and walls of the feeding dome, and the sounds of anguish from the many caught Mole Pokémon could be heard echoing throughout the tunnels.
As many of the Diglett and Dugtrio fought to escape beneath the earth, a howl carried on throughout the caves, this time one of triumphant victory, rather than one to goad them into attack. The howl soon began to deepen and gain a bone-chilling quality to it.
Iruni stood up from his position behind Rikalia’s ice wall to watch what was about to happen. The underground dome was being illuminated by some of the thicker bundles of roots that continued to burn.
“Here we go,” Iruni said to himself.
Karros’ body had already started glowing white with transformative energy, changing and growing in response to the feat he had just performed. His legs grew much longer and now sported sharp, white claws on each paw. The bone-like ridges that ran across his back grew in size and number and a skull-like protrusion sprouted from the base of his neck. A pair of twin, curved horns grew from his head and curled backward. A long, pointed tail grew from where his short, stubby one had been, and whipped the air as the light from the evolution died down.
Now a Houndoom, Karros howled one more time into the dark cave, delivering further warning to the many wild Pokémon that resided there.
“Wow, look at you,” Iruni said, walking forward. He knelt down on one knee and looked eye-to-eye with his newly evolved Pokémon. “How do you feel?”
“Tall.” The voice was fearful and overbearing, adding to the surprise that it caused.
Karros had just spoken and Iruni had understood it.
“Whoa, what was that!” Iruni laughed in disbelief. “Say something again, Kar!”
“Working?” his Houndoom barked, a bit surprised himself at the new development.
“Yes! It’s just single words right now, but I can understand you!” Iruni grinned and wrapped his arms around Karros’ neck, laughing happily. “I’m so glad you got it to work!”
“Helped,” Karros nudged Iruni’s face to look back at the entrance to the dome where Rikalia and Atanya still waited. “Still me.”
“We know that,” Rikalia said, uneasily stepping into the dome. She kept her eyes on the ceiling. “There’s just a lot of burning roots up there.”
“Rika,” Iruni said, standing up. “Thanks for helping Kar learn how to talk to me. I mean it.”
“No problem. We both figured things out,” the Sneasel said.
“I’m serious,” Iruni walked over to her and picked her up into a hug. “Thanks for this. You did great work today. I had no idea you guys figured out so much already.”
“Are you mad that we didn’t tell you?”
“No, the surprise was worth it. I guess evolving made everything click, huh Kar?” Iruni turned around to look at Karros, finding him staring up at the ceiling of the underground dome, sniffing the air with an urgent look on his face. “What’s the matter?”
Without saying a word, Karros leapt over to where Iruni and Rikalia were and began taking in the human’s scent vigorously, smelling him all that he could.
“What is it?” asked Iruni.
“You.” Karros went back to sniffing the air in the dome, and then stopped suddenly, pinpointing what he had found. “There.” The Houndoom looked straight up at the ceiling, locking his eyes with something in the dark.
“What’s he saying, Rika?” Iruni asked. “I’m not really understanding what he’s trying to tell me.”
“He says he can smell you, or something like you in here.” The Sneasel stood on Iruni’s shoulders and looked up to where Karros was pointing.
“Cut down.”
“I can try.”
Rikalia formed a few handfuls of sharp icicles and began throwing them up at the ceiling, her target apparently a larger bundle of interwoven tree roots that hung there. After a few tries, the ball of plant life came tumbling down to the cave floor, falling apart on impact with the hard dirt. Immediately, Karros ran to it and began to dig through the debris, eagerly searching for what he had smelled.
“What is it, Kar?” Iruni asked, helping Rikalia down to the ground.
“Yours.”
Karros grabbed something with his mouth from within the broken bundle of roots and brought it over to Iruni. The burning roots above had begun to die down, so it was too dark to really see what it was that his Pokémon had given him, though without being able to see it, the object felt strangely familiar. Unsettled by the feeling, Iruni took a moment and took off his backpack, then took out a lantern he had bought earlier that day in Vermilion. In the new light, he could clearly see what item his Pokémon had given him, but Iruni was at a loss on how to react.
“Is… Is this—?” he looked up to Karros in disbelief.
“Positive.”
Iruni held in his hand an item common among traveling Pokémon Trainers. A flat, hinged case with the Pokémon League’s insignia of a stylized Poké Ball on the top, used to store a trainer’s Gym Badges. Its exterior was dirty and worn, scuff marks and soil caked onto it in places. Turning around to its back confirmed what shouldn’t have been possible; it belonged to “Bartholomew Iruni Thomas, Trainer ID: 53142”.
“What is this?” Iruni dropped it onto the ground in shock. “How— How did it get up there?” Iruni turned back to his large backpack and began looking through his belongings for his badge case, determined to prove the one he had just seen to be a fake. As he came up empty, he fell down to his knees in defeat. “I… I know I saw it in my bag when I left this morning with Kreen. I went through my pack to grab my wallet… and it was there! Were you guys gone from the campsite at all?” he asked Rikalia and Karros.
“Yeah… When we left to practice Dark Pulses…” Rikalia admitted.
“Worked,” Karros said. “But how?”
“I don’t know!” Iruni picked the badge case up from the ground and looked it over again. It definitely seemed to him like that it was genuinely his badge case, just much dirtier and worn than the last time he had looked at it. Dreading what he was about to do, he pressed the latch and opened up the case, surprised when the hinges broke and the case itself fell apart in his hands. Two badges fell down to the ground with a metallic clink.
“Hey!” Rikalia swiped them up with her paws quickly, looking dismayed at their messy appearance. “These are ours. They’re ours!” She looked up to Iruni. “What does this mean?”
While Rikalia had been preoccupied with the badges that had fallen from the decrepit case, Iruni had found something else inside. It was a piece of paper, thicker and softer than common notebook paper, folded into a neat square. Unfolding the piece of parchment brought on the scent of fresh flowers.
“What’s that?” asked Rikalia.
Iruni read the note over and over, and each time he reached the end his hands would shake in anger more and more. He crumpled it in his hands and threw it to the ground, walking a few steps away from the light that the lantern provided.
“I can’t believe this!” he yelled, kicking the wall of the cave. “How can she be so full of herself?!”
He could hear the crinkle of the note once more. He turned back to see Rikalia smoothing out the paper and reading it for herself. He didn’t stop her; he wondered how his Sneasel would react.
“What?!” Rikalia looked up at Iruni in disbelief. “Is this from her?”
“Yes.” Iruni walked back to his Pokémon, sitting down on the dirt floor. “It’s always her.”
“Well, what are we going to do about it?” asked Rikalia. “We have to do something about this, right?”
“What can we do?” Iruni said, more in defeat rather than asking a question. He pointed to the letter his Sneasel held in her paws, “That thing being here is proof we’re powerless when it comes to her. Always playing into her hand…”
Karros stepped forward, exhaling heavily through his nose before talking. “Wrong. Blind. Key.”
At Iruni’s confused glance, Rikalia gave a more thorough translation, “He said, ‘You’re wrong. We can blind her, and we’re the key.’ Not sure I get what he means either.”
“Us Rikalia.”
Iruni stared at the note in his Sneasel’s paw, going over the infuriating words written on it in his head. Karros’ speech was rough and loud to his ears, leaving a dull ringing whenever there was any silence in the room. No doubt a side-effect of Karros only just now managing the Dark Pulse translation trick.
“Kar, do you mean how you can talk to me?”
“Yes. Rikalia. Hadarah. Me. Blind.”
It took hearing all of their names out loud for him to realize what Karros meant.
“Of course,” Iruni said, standing up. He looked back over to the entrance of the dome, where Atanya had dutifully stayed watching over their exit. She looked worried about what had been going on. “You did a good job keeping a lookout here, Anya. Listen; everything’s fine. I just need to have a chat with these two and Hadarah. You okay with going in your ball for a little bit? I promise you’ll see some more action soon.”
The Chikorita smiled at her trainer’s reassuring words, agreeing quickly. Once she was recalled into her Poké Ball, Iruni released the much larger Ogre Scorpion Pokémon into the round room. Hadarah looked around at his new surroundings, as well as his newly evolved teammate, but didn’t seem too anxious at the moment.
“Kar, Rika, Hadarah.” Iruni walked back to the middle of the room and looked from each of his Pokémon to the other. “I only have one idea about what to do, but I’m afraid it’ll make everything worse for us. I won’t do it unless we’re all agreed, and if we don’t take my idea, I want to hear your thoughts on how to handle this.
“This affects all of us, and as much as I want Atanya and Kreen here, they’re at risk of letting it slip if they know. Only the four of us can know.”
Iruni quickly laid out what had happened to his Drapion, who quickly shared the rest of the group’s opinion about the sender of the note. He then told his Pokémon his idea, and how it could solve their problems or make matters worse.
“I don’t even know if my plan is even possible, but the three of you are the only ones who can help me do it.”
Iruni looked to his Pokémon one last time before asking, “Any objections?”
Hadarah shook his head side to side slowly, exhaling sharply as if to punctuate his answer.
“No.”
“No,” answered Rikalia, defiance in her eyes.
“Good.” Iruni took the note from his Sneasel and looked over it again. “Because Celebi gave us the best hint on how to beat her right here.”
—————

Elsewhere…

“Listen.”
‘Are you sure you should be talking to me right now?’
“I’ll be fine. I need to ask a favor of you.”
‘Why so formal? You know you can ask me anytime.’
“It’s… not something I should ask, especially not right now.”
‘I do not understand.’
“I need you to look into my— no, our future.”
‘You know that is outside of my ability, don’t you?’
“I don’t care if it’s possible, I just need to know. Please, just try.”
‘Why are you so insistent? Are things between you two… troubled?’
“Not right now… but once she evolves…”
‘Understood. I will try, but I cannot guarantee any result will be to your liking.’
…
…
…
“Well?”
‘It is… difficult to make sense of it, but I could see some things.’
“Like what?”
‘Sadness. Desperation. Conflict. Centered around you.’
“All of that… coming from her?”
‘Yes, along with great pain and regret from yourself.’
“And…” Allan dreaded asking his last question. “When will this happen?”
His Natu closed his eyes again, struggling to tap back into his fledgling ability to see into the future. Xutan’s mind responded, ‘During a time of high temperatures. Perhaps the hottest day of the year.’
Allan looked out in front of him to where his other Pokémon were, playing in the grass with their newest teammate, Sontos the Beldum. He saw Umari happily running around and leaping at the floating metal arm, trying her best to pin him down in their little game. He brought a hand to his face, covering his eyes.
“Summer is already here… We don’t have much time, do we?”
‘I expect not,’ Xutan said. ‘What will you do now? I apologize that my vision was not more precise.’
“Don’t be,” Allan said. “I just… need to be careful from here on out.”
‘You know that knowledge of the future could be exactly what brings it about, don’t you Master?’
“I don’t believe in destiny,” said Allan defiantly. “I’ll stop whatever conflict is coming between Umari and I however I can.”
‘And you’re sure that her… impending change is what sparks all this?’
“I’m sure.” Allan rubbed the sides of his head, feeling a headache coming on. “I won’t be able to hide from her when she evolves. And when she sees how I really am… she’ll want to run away.”
‘I think you give her too little credit. When has she ever gone against you or your wishes?’
“This is different and you know it.”
‘Perhaps, but you are too hung up on the potential negative consequences to even consider she might accept you.’
“That’s just it,” Allan corrected his Natu. “All those things she feels after she evolves are proof that I’m right. I asked because I… hoped… that I was wrong and over-thinking things, but now I know for sure.”
‘Why not let me ask what she thinks of the matter?’
“Absolutely not!” He let his voice raise too high, momentarily drawing Umari and his other Pokémon’s attention towards them. “We’re not ready for the battle with Whitney yet,” he tried to mask his outburst as best as he could. ‘You are never to tell Umari about what we talked about today. Is that understood?’
‘Very well, Master.’
—————
To Be Continued…
—————
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The Dark Type