Chapter Text
Ayame did not have time to waste thinking. She grabbed Melia by the arm and pulled her behind some trees. Just in case. In case they got far enough into the cave, in case they needed to sneak past. So many "just in cases" she was feeling just a little homesick.
"That was Mew," Melia suddenly said. "That was Mew, wasn't it?"
Ayame thought and thought and remembered feline limbs thin as her big toe and a tail the length of ten bendy straws. "Yeah," she said, pushing the thoughts away. "I bet it's one of the only ones left."
"And that thing it gave you…" Aya ignored the eyes the best she could. "What was it?"
"Suppressor," she said, remembering it clutched in her other hand and hurrying to put it on. "It's will take longer for my skin will melt if it starts to rain, or that I'll burn your hand off."
Melia didn't jump away, only tightened her grip. "You'll what."
"I can't control the powers too well yet," she said instead of repeating herself. She still didn't dare to look at Melia. It was a risk. She couldn't look at her and see what she was sure would be there. That kaleidoscope of feelings that people had when they met a real live Avatar. "Haven't had them for long."
"You weren't exactly burning me before."
"Takes more effort than you think." A smell wafted over the air, wet leaves and fur. Ayame put a finger to her lips as something thudded to the ground. It sniffed, padding closer and then passed them towards where they had been.
Melia gave her a firm tug on the arm and mouthed, the food.
Of course. Aya leaned forward at the sound of ripping, tearing, crunching. If they were going to have to hold it off, the least she could do was see what it was.
At the sight of the pokemon she leaned back in surprise. "Absol," she breathed. Beside her, Melia tensed up in fear.
Absol were always called heralds of disaster. They were always on that fringe an instant before the beginning and would observe until the end. That didn't mean they caused those disasters, but they always knew. They were forced to know, to feel the inevitable fall of something. A group of people, a dynasty, a landmark. No one knew what specifically drew them to specific disasters but they went to them anyway.
She was almost tempted to catch it, but that was a risk, especially since she had no idea what had brought it here.
Except for the X people… Xen maybe?
Aya felt the trembling start in her body before Melia's grip tightened on her. She had so many questions to ask them, like why they had kidnapped her mother, what they were going to do… and why were they acting now? So many questions, and she was pretty damn sure they'd give her no answers.
"You have your suitcase?" she said out of the corner of her mouth. Melia nodded. "All right. Let's do this. be ready to get out whatever it is that's in there. We need to get back to the train."
"What about everyone else?"
"We'll work on that." Of course she was worried about that. But most of them were trainers or had pokemon themselves. They couldn't just protect them blindly from a threat they didn't know about. "You're the one in the most danger, Melia. Remember? I was told to look after you today. That means you're in more danger than they are."
What she didn't say was that everyone else would make great hostages because most decent human beings didn't like watching other people suffer or to die for them to live.
"Who told you to look after me? And besides, you have… fire! And things." By now, Aya was determinedly dragging Melia into the cave as she spoke, the blonde girl's voice getting steadily louder. "You can just stop… whoever they are!"
Aya did not turn her head. She refused to look her current charge in the eye. "That's easy for you to say. I'm a novice trainer with powers I barely reign in, hearing aids that spark on a good day and you to look after."
"I have pokemon I'm not entirely helpless."
Aya swallowed her anger, pain and the creeping memory of trembling bricks over her head, someone falling down where the trains would run. She would not dump that on Melia, she would not dump that on a person she wasn't like these people but god did she want to scream. She wanted to save these people too! She wanted to help them! But she couldn't do both! She wasn't that good! This was why she had wanted to leave, this was why she had wanted to-
Melia suddenly let out a sound of pain and without thinking, Aya jerked away. "Sorry! Sorry!" She was still moving forward, tossing rawst berries and bandages behind her. "Just… just stay in there okay?! I'll get everyone in there first, just stay away from me!"
She was going to be sick, she had hurt someone again, she was going to be sick.
Something soft nuzzled against her cheek, causing her to slow to a walk and then stop. Her breath hitched and Aya sniffled, trying to control her breathing, her racing heart. Eevee pressed against her cheek again, still settled on her shoulder. "Thanks," she mumbled, rubbing her face. "Just panicked. Sorry." Get a grip, idiot. You're going to be a kimono girl aren't you? They live with fear. Their legendary could up and eat them because it's the wrong outfit. Don't stop now. You are beyond that fear. Keep it together.
But was she really?
She made herself take another step and then another, until she was nearly back at a normal walking speed. Then, a chill shot up her spine as a hand closed around her wrist. Aya jerked her hand forward and away but the hand only tightened.
"Don't you run from me!" Melia's voice was almost too loud again, and Aya looked back to see a stern face in those rosy cheeks, the blond hair befitting of Unovan cupids and depictions of angels. It was ruined by the scowl on her face but then, Aya had seen much more terrifying things before. "You don't get to just, to just say all that, do all of that, and just walk away."
Watch me almost came out of her own throat until Aya swallowed it and looked her dead in the eye. "It's safer if you stay a distance away. So you can get your pokemon out."
"Safer for you or me?"
Aya did not answer that.
Melia fixed her with a determined pair of blue eyes. "I'm not letting you just up and go into whatever that is on your own. We told each other deep secrets. So we're friends now. And friends don't leave each other behind."
Her bag suddenly felt a whole lot heavier on her shoulder. The words hurt something in her ribs.
She's honest, sang someone in her heart. All the time, all the possibilities, she keeps that look in her eyes. That look that begs for a miracle. For a future. You can trust her, Aya-chan.
Well if Su-kun says it, it has to be true.
Aya closed her eyes and waited for there to be some silence in her head. "I can't promise anything," she finally said."I don't know if we'll be able to help everyone here. I was told to look after you."
"That's fine," Melia said with an easy grin. "I'll just cover them instead. I've got a full team too you know!"
Aya shifted at the thought, words rising up in her throat. Then there was a very loud scream. They both turned and Aya took off again, calling, "Then you'd better keep up!" as she went.
Melia watched her go before laughing a little. "She's trying to act all grown up," she said to buneary, who only muttered something in reply. Probably something rude. Still, her heart was a little warmer knowing the girl wasn't actually going to leave her here.
We'll make this work together, she decided, hurrying after the smaller girl. Aya was knelt by an older woman was huddled on the ground. Her dress was ripped, hat askew, and blood dripped from three scratches on her arm. Aya was looping bandages around it, speaking so low Melia couldn't hear her until she was right next to her.
"We've gotta get her inside, just behind the wall."
Melia felt her wrist twinge in pain, but she nodded, leaning over herself. "Ma'am, can you walk?"
"Ye-Yes," the woman quavered as she spoke, clutching her hat. She pushed herself up. "it's just.. my furfrou… he was from my son, my son gave him to me and they just took him like yesterday's trash!"
"Well you did leave it out for anyone with a good net, what were we gonna do?"
A man strolled out, decked in blacks and reds with an X gouged into one side of the chest. Aya made herself not snort. Three others came up behind him and at his side was what at first glance looked like a meowth. Moving slowly on all fours, it did not growl or sniff or paw at the dirt. It was the most uncatlike meowth she had ever seen.
From her hood, eevee started to growl.
"We're not done taking things from that old bag," drawled the first man, lips quirked into a smug smile. "The people here are so easy."
Melia led the woman back as quickly as possible into the cave, leaving Aya alone with the four people looming closer.
"That girl in the back fits the description," said the second adult, putting two fingers to her left ear. "This is Xen Grunt Leon, reporting in. Target Melia has been spotted. I repeat, target has been spotted. We're initializing capture protocol."
Aya planted her feet. "I'm not gonna let you," she said quietly, and she moved to a crouch, which wasn't very far all things considered.
They laughed at her. Her eye twitched. "Just a kid," said the first, who looked down at his meowth. "This'll be faster than the old lady. Get 'er Meowsie."
The cat lunged for her head and Aya lifted her arm and swiped, throwing it to the ground.
The man whistled. 'Looks like we've got ourselves a badass on our hands here, everyone! Willing to fight a Shadow Pokemon with her bare hands."
Like eevee… Aya chewed her lip. Did eevee come from them? Or…? No, she couldn't think about that now, two of those people were charging. Aya dug her feet into the dirt and pushed off, swinging her fist into the approaching woman's jaw. She flew backwards, howling in pain and Ayame took another step forward to swing at the other. He dodged to the side, laughing and Ayame had to face forward again, leaping to the side of the scratching meowth. Her wrist snapped out and she chopped. It hissed and latched onto her arm, glow rapidly going from purple to a dark red as it tried to sink its teeth into her-
She socked it off and it squealed agony even as its tongue licked her blood from its teeth.
"You're not just gonna be able to knock out a shadow pokemon with your bare hands, kid," spat the grunt. "'Specially not my Meowsie. I've had her since she was a baby. She's tough as nails."
Aya had to pause to breathe, to blink away the sudden red filling her own vision. "And you turned her into a Shadow Pokemon? Do you have any brain cells? Any at all?"
She inhaled as quick as she could and turned around to the sound of a very loud screech.
"Let go of me!"
Aya turned to help, assuming that was Melia. Then her eyes went comically wide as she watched Melia's trembling arms lift up and up and up-
And the grunt was sent screaming over the trees.
Aya blinked for a moment. "Wild," she whispered and leaped to the side of the tiny, panting cat. It didn't stop to even land really, chasing her as she danced around the way up, blocking their path.
"Just stay still and get hit!" The man's face was twisting, lip chewed red.
Ayame ignored him as Melia made it to her side. "Get the suitcase," ordered the older girl, calling out her buneary and an eevee of her own. Unlike Aya's, its expression was perfectly clear and bright. "Use the code 6489. I'll hold them off. Whatever's in there should help us!"
Aya almost asked why she couldn't do it but moved to obey anyway. Whatever it was, it was probably more surprising if she could use it. Her fingers fumbled the code a moment but the second time she entered it in the suitcase popped open. Said case would have seemed empty if it weren't for the strange, child-sized glove that ran the length of a human arm. The fingers were covered in metal and the top of the hand had a strange, circular cover.
"Put it on!" Melia called. There was something odd in her voice, something painful. "It's a Snag Machine! Use it!"
As if she was going to do anything else. She slid the device over her arm and it unfolded like vines with blossoms, latching onto her digits so fluidly if she didn't know how dark her skin was, Aya would almost be foolish enough to believe it had always been that way. Pich sparked at it, but that gave no response whatsoever.
Welcome user, it chimed right inside her brain. Please bear with the initialization process.
Well that wasn't comforting in the slightest. If she wasn't so used to the hearing aids she'd already had that would have sent her into some kind of a tizzy mentally, rather than physically when something stabbed into the top of her hand. She grumbled in pain, which was the extent of it really for her. She'd had a little bit worse than that. Just a little though. User acknowledged.
And the world opened up.
She'd never been able to see ghosts, mind. They were all over and she felt them like an awful uncontrolled itch. But she'd been able to hear and feel them, until the accident, including the ones that trailed after her like will-o-wisps on autumn nights. Now her eyes were flooded with purple lights, dancing at grunts' pokeballs, all around her eevee and the meowth positively shining with it. Her eevee was much dimmer, but there was a shade of red at the edges.
Eevee hopped from her hood and crashed into the meowth, snarling and bristling. He yipped with fervor. purple shrouding his tiny body so thoroughly it was hard for Aya to see the original form.
"Eevee!" she called. "You've gotta calm down!"
Eevee barked in reply, which was more than the pokemon had done before, but it wasn't saying much. Aya grimaced and grabbed a pokeball from her bag. It smacked into the Meowth and sucked it in.
"Eevee!" Aya called as the pokemon stared unwavering eyes at the shaking ball. "To Melia! Quick!"
"I'm fine!" Melia called through the grunts of battle. "Focus on the meowth!"
Ayame had to not roll her eyes but watched the ball go still and the grunt's face drop like a stone to the ground. Eevee pawed anxiously.
"M-Meowsie?" His face wobbled, tears rose from his eyes. "I raised her myself… I hatched her myself." Aya felt pity gurgle in her stomach. He glared at her. "Give her back!"
Aya picked up the ball as it disappeared to her pc, or more accurately, to her parents. She'd have to send a message to her dads to explain things as soon as she and Melia were safe. "You shouldn't have tortured it into a Shadow, you idiot." She kept the pity at bay, not even flinching at his tears. She had to keep it together."
He stared at her, jaw agape. Then he turned tail and ran.
Aya turned back to the opponents trying to box Melia into the mouth of the cave. Then she sighed. "Pich?"
Her pichu squeaked.
"Thunder Wave." She hesitated for an instant. "On the grunts."
Pich, being too young to quite understand the implications, obeyed. The grunts collapsed into twitching heaps. Aya moved over to examine their belts, their two pokemon turning back in confusion before Melia's pokemon knocked them out. Seeing two pokeballs glowing purple, she reached and plucked them off. Tossing each ball out one at a time, she chewed her lip.
"Eevee." Eevee trotted to her side, growling all the while at the new arrivals. "Get them."
Eevee obeyed with a high pitched squeak of what could have been joy. The Snag Machine gave a hum against her hand in acknowledgement.
She was so tired. As Melia made it to her side, looking a little worse for wear, all she could do was imagine how much worse it could go.
"I'll take them, and then we'll escape," she said, more like sighed. "Okay?"
Melia hesitated a moment. Then she reached out and squeezed her shoulder.
Aya failed to smile.