A Pokemon Problem
(22) - Feel the Burn
How freaking bad was our luck that, of all the trains, we end up climbing aboard the one that was carrying apple cider and dynamite?
Pretty bad, if I say so myself.
To add insult and probably death by explosion, a small amount of dust came out of the box and drifted menacingly towards Miranda's agape beak. Never before have I been so afraid of tiny, suspended particles. It seemed that everyone, even the people who had didn't need to breathe, held their breaths while they waited. To sneeze or not to sneeze; that was the question that everyone was wondering.
"Ah!"
Everyone pre-emptively winced.
"Ah!"
I heard several prayers being whispered.
"Achoo—"
Quick as I could, I put my arm in front of Miranda just as she sneezed a torrent of fire. With a rare fling of masochism, I watched with mild interest as my arm started smoking and some of the metal melted and dripped down onto the steel carriage floor, only to burn a hole straight through. The whole time I observed my arm melting like a popsicle on a hot summer day, I didn't feel any pain.
"Ohmygod! Ohmygod! I didn't mean—I tried to—I can't—!"
With a metaphorical click, I was no longer a distant observer of someone else's problem: I was the one who had the half-melted arm, and it hurt. My vision tunnelled, I could see stars, and everything else was blotted out by pain.
I once fell down a flight of concrete stairs, and broke an arm, leg, and my collarbone. That hurt, but compared to having your arm melted by sixteen hundred degree (Fahrenheit) flames, it was akin to scraping your knee on the playground.
Thankfully, Seth had a brilliant idea. He took a deep breath and breathed a stream of icy wind onto my raised appendage, cooling it and making the rivulets of molten metal cool and harden. I wasn't sure if it was because the cold numbed my limb, but the pain dropped from feeling like it was being charbroiled to a dull throb, with occasional spikes of ache.
I felt ripped off. I was a freakin' floating (most of the time), psychic heap of metal. Why in the hell could I feel pain? I could understand the head pains from using my mental abilities: that was fine. But having nerve endings in my metal body? I call bullshit on that.
"Th-Thanks, Seth," I said, gently laying my arm back onto the floor, where it was nice and safe. "That helped a lot more than I thought it would."
"I-uh—yeah, you're welcome," the big, furry pig-thing replied. "Uh... are you going to be okay? That—" he motioned with his head towards my mangled hand, "—doesn't look very good."
I twisted my arm this way and that. "No, it doesn't look very good, but there's no sense crying over melted flesh, is there?" I looked back at my arm and winced. "What's done is done, and I'd rather sport an injury than have everyone blown to smithereens."
Gingerly, I picked up the lid with my good hand and placed it back on top of the crate that contained roughly enough dynamite to level a building—or three. Everyone's eyes were on me while I did it, and by the time I was done, I was feeling mighty uncomfortable.
"I'd appreciate it you turned your sympathy into moving in that direction," I said, pointing towards the set of doors that were casually knocked down by who I assumed was Seth when they first entered my carriage. "If I was the conductor of this train, I'd be awfully curious as to why it mysteriously slowed down—"
My thought-speech was interrupted by a blood-curdling scream that set the hairs on Seth's back straight up. Even Philomena was disturbed: the plume of feathers on her chest rose before she nervously began preening and flattening them again.
"That doesn't sound like someone's having a good time," Ryder said.
"Seconded. Everyone, let's get the hell out of here. Ryder, you take point: I doubt that whatever got a response like that can hurt a Ghost. I'll bring up the rear, 'cause... well..." I motioned towards my arm, and nothing more was said about it.
With Ryder floating in front and Seth, along with Philomena, trailing just behind, I waited for Miranda to go ahead of me. When she didn't, I awkwardly turned myself around, and saw her sitting on the floor, crying.
"Hey, hey, there's no need to cry—"
Without a warning, Miranda flung herself toward me and wrapped her arms around me in a semi-crushing vice, spouting, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry!"
Despite myself, I gently brought my good arm and returned the hug, albeit softer.
"It's all my fault that you—your—"
"It's not your fault."
"Yes it is! I was the one who—"
"It's not your fault."
"But—"
"It's not your fault," I said for the third and final time. "I could just as easily argue that it's my fault for asking you to open up that godforsaken box in the first place. I know you had no intention of hurting me, or anyone, for that matter, and I don't want you to beat yourself up over something that was out of your control."
I felt her wracking sobs lessen in both power and frequency. "I'm still sorry," she sniffed. "You can't make me not feel sorry."
"That's fine by me, just as long as you're sorry for me, not sorry based on guilt. I'm not going to disregard pity or sympathy like some overly-macho, self-hating jerk."
I felt Miranda's sobs lessen even more until they could be masquerading hiccups. "You're a good person, James," she whispered.
I froze. I hadn't heard my name spoken in what felt like years. Recovering from my initial shock, I said, "Good person? No, I'm just a person who doesn't like to see someone else beat themselves up over something that they didn't—"
I froze again, this time because a white light was blossoming from Miranda's chest. She hugged me tighter and whispered, "I love you," before being fully engulfed in the blindingly brilliant, white light.
Awww…this chapter warmed my heart.
Oh gosh! Let's see, everyone has evolved and we're stilling missing somebody. Real smooth.
2498398
Good point…who is the last person anyways?
Maybe s/he's already evolved. or s/he has no evolution.
I like the story so far. Characterization is good and the plot is relatively interesting, both good things to catch and keep the reader's attention. However, I constantly have the feeling that the story is moving way too fast in terms of evolutions. I mean, I can understand why you want everyone to level up as fast as possible, and generally in the cases you used it, it was relevant to the plot. I think the only case where I felt really iffy about was Seth's off-screen one. Although I suppose you gave some small hints beforehand, it still felt like it came kinda out of nowhere.
I hope from now on, you hold back a bit on everyone else's final forms till a bit later. Give the characters time to at least get used to/enjoy their newer forms before being given another one. I mean, I don't know the time frame of the story, but it couldn't have been more than a few days at most right? Correct me if I am wrong.
Assuming that Miranda arrived as a Torchic (seeing as everyone else arrived in their first stage evolutions), it feels a bit unnaturally fast for a pokemon to evolve twice in that short of a time span. I can understand the others if they arrived at levels close to their first evolution, being that they were young adults and all, but still.
At least, that's my opinion.
2498395Not to mention his arm... by about 600 degrees.
2498451
True…I wonder if he can fix it by eating metal…
…
EAT THE TRAIN!
2498460Even better. EAT A BUILDING!
2498467
And then evolve into Metagross.
…I just realized, ho can Miranda hug him without being impaled by the spike on his face?
I call shenanigans. Combuskin doesn't evolve via friendship.
2498487Magic. That is all the explanation this site ever needs.
2498467 try and top this EAT CANTERLOT
2498530EAT EQUESTRIA!
2498552 we have to keep it realistic
2498552 Oh yeah? Eat EQUIS!
2498601EAT THE HORSEHEAD NEBULA!
2498604 Eat the HORSE-HOOF GALAXY (Yes, I did just make that up)
2498680EAT THE COSMOS!
2498408 The last person is the one that Ryder managed to convince James to come to the party because of her. I think it was his crush.
2498683 Question how does he eat now anyway?
We're still missing Caleb and Cindy, did they find each other? PLOT TWIST IDEA
2498725His hands.
2498421
In regards to the speedy evolutions... actually, I've got nothing except for the fact that the story's roughly three-quarters complete, and I wanted pretty much everybody in their final forms for the end. Blame my poor planning
2498683 Eat the MULTIVERSE!
2498901EAT DOCTOR WHO AND ABSORB HIS POWERS!
2498897
Really? So soon? Hmmm... Oh well, I'm looking forward to seeing how you wrap this whole thing up then!
2498897 change your profile picture it is inapropriate
2499059 It's tapioca pudding. Get your mind out of the gutter.
2499059 It's Tubby Custard, gosh.
2498901>>2498912 It appears I've started a trend...
Fun fact:
Blaziken was my first Pokemon card, and second Lv. 100.
2499059
What? Can't a Gardevoir enjoy her tapioca pudding?
Called it. And James/Metang/Little Guy called it too.
And that avater of yers is the perfect innuendo. Stop hatin' on it, people.
>is eating really spicy food
>sees chapter title
encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRUuzZkN4oSeJYI08H0K5TdITzgnu3FF7QPwsllybvWvYscDAgX
I have one to top all those other eat this or eat that......EAT THE AUTHOR!
Tapioca pudding? I thought it was white bubblegum, right after the bubble pops. Good story.
2498897
Besides, Miranda leveled up a lot in that pit.
2499628 EAT THE WHOLE DIMENSION!!!
2499628
This has escalated quickly.
Looking forward to later chapters. I like the dynamite and alcohol idea, Can poke'mon get drunk?
2498912 EAT THE TARDIS
2502217EAT THE TARDIS FROM WHEN IT WAS EXPLODING EVERYWHERE IN THE MULTIVERSE AT ONCE!
2502229 AND THEN YOU MUST EAT THE DARLEKS!
2499628 Oh yeah? EAT THE AUTHOR AND HIS LAP TOP!
2502252BUT OF COURSE!
img178.imageshack.us/img178/1522/facestabapproval.png
2502258EAT THE AUTHOR, HER LAPTOP, HER DESK, HER FAMILY, AND HER HOUSE! (Yes, the author's a girl)
2502313
How do you know I'm using a laptop?
2502895Just following what the guy before me said. No clue if you're using a laptop desktop, or even a PS3.
2499201 yea, just a gardevoir and her pudding.
4.bp.blogspot.com/-rU-5oT6uEZg/Ti5ywDTX4DI/AAAAAAAAAro/jvoFQfYFhj0/s1600/7124e10e819b0255e2cce316fced350d.jpg
2502313 Whoops , anyways...
EAT HER PROPERTY!
2503083already covered that bro. Said eat her desk, her laptop, and her house. That's pretty much her property in a nutshell.
Hell YEAH! Blazeiken time! SO HYPE!