Raichu for Hire
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Epilogue
Nica rolled from a nest made of sticks and hay, crashing on the soft floor. Her eyes watered and her face radiated in fear. Taking a moment to stand and calm her nerves, she looked around over Gabby’s home.
For a creature with so many talents and the ability to renovate near-ruined homes, her home was certainly on the humble side. Instead of bed and chairs, Nica could see nests in a diversity of sizes. Two small nests were present around a rounded wooden table. One wardrobe filled with small bags and scarfs stood tall in the corner. Even fruits and vegetables seemed gathered on a small nest with no refrigerator to be seen.
One glance out the window at the moon told her that it was still middle of the night.
She wiped sweat from her forehead and climbed up onto the nest, perching herself on it while pressing her cheek and side into Gabby’s wing, nuzzling it. It was just a nightmare… no biggie, she thought to herself. All this time her dreams provided her with information about her past, something she eagerly looked forward too whenever closing her eyes.
This time however, her dream was filled with one repetitive scenario. Astra challenged Brandon from the Battle Pyramid to a six on six battle, and whenever one of the legendary pokemon was sent into the field, she was the one sent to face it.
Despite knowing how to use a Z-move, which would provide Nica with extreme firepower against the legendary giants, Astra refused to use it. After the battle was lost, Astra took her team for intense training, testing new strategies or making her team fight with each other to sharpen their skills. One week of training later, Astra once again challenged Brandon, sending Nica to face against one of the legendaries. Week after week, Nica experienced the incredibly strong power of Regice, Registeel or Regirock on her weaker body.
Despite growing tougher and performing better with each rematch, the painful losing continued, turning the dream into a nightmare.
Nica opened her eyes and pushed herself to a sitting position upon hearing a scream. She looked around in confusion, her friend was nowhere to be seen.
“Gabby, Gabby!?” She leaped from the nest and ran towards the door, opening it with her tail before rushing outside. She was about to search for her friend, only for three griffons to descend in front of her, each armed with weapon.
“You’re not going anywhere,” one griffon said, holding a plank with one sharp nail raised in his talon.
“Don’t take it personally, it’s just business,” another griffon spoke up, a baseball bat supported on his shoulder.
“We have been paid by some old rich folk to keep you from leaving. Just stay here five-ten minutes and no one will get hurt,” said the third griffon, this one the tallest while wearing an eyepatch. Metallic gloves with sharp claws were present on his talons.
Upon closer examination, Nica noticed at least ten unconscious griffons scattered around. Some sort of battle had to take place with the high possibility of Gabby’s involvement.
Nica narrowed her eyes, took a fighting stance and raised her tail threateningly, sending power into it. “Where’s Gabby? What did you do with her?”
“It’s none of your concern.”
“Be a nice little pet and wait for your master inside her home. She’ll come back in several minutes.”
“We just needed to… borrow her… for a few moments. She proved impressively strong and agile for someone smaller and outnumbered, but we had the element of surprise,” said the griffon with eyepatch before raising his metal claws. “Our employer isn’t interested in harming her, I can guarantee.”
“I don’t believe you,” Nica said and hissed. “Now, where is she?” She ran towards the griffons and swung her tail several times in one second, cutting each weapon into smaller parts before her opponents could ever react. She followed up by stopping the edge of her tail in front of griffon’s neck. After facing the mob as Raichu and fighting a legendary pokemon as a Pikachu, a few greedy griffons won’t scare me.
Two griffons looked at each other before dropping what was left of their weapons and flying away.
“He didn’t pay me enough to be cut to pieces.”
“Tell me about it. I’m outta here.”
“Hey, don’t leave me behind you cowards,” the tallest griffon spoke, not daring to move an inch with the destructive tail millimeters from stroking his neck.
“So much for the loyalty of those who work for bits. Unlike them, I won’t leave a friend, no matter if I’m being burned alive, hit with beams or crushed under tons of pressure,” Nica said, her glare showing no happiness, nor compassion. “I don’t want to hurt you, but I will to protect my friend. So, where’s Gabby?”
“I… I won’t tell. I may be greedy, but unlike other pathetic griffons, I didn’t forget about our roots. I was paid for my service and I’ll carry it to the end.” He gulped as sweat started dropping from his forehead. “I won’t sell out my employer.”
Nica groaned. Of all the greedy griffons that lived here, she just had to capture the mercenary with a sense of honor. As much as she wished to help Gabby, the idea of torturing anyone for information went against her nature. She withdrew her tail, her bluff busted.
Upon feeling a weak bite and hearing a squeaking noise, she looked down at her left rear leg, noticing Mr. Patrick next to it. “Do you know where they took Gabby?” she asked, receiving a nod and a few squeaky responses before he ran away.
Nica ran, following her little friend while adjusting her speed to the one of the rat. Now that I think about it, that weird unicorn tried to pull off something on Gabby before turning into dust. Is someone targeting her or something? She grit her teeth and narrowed her eyes in anger. Gabby was a friend, and she was going to fight to the last bit of her stamina to–
Nica pulled herself to a full stop, seeing her friend sitting in front of a house, supported against the wall. “Gabby!” she shouted, running and tackling her friend’s neck with enough force to create a few cracks on the wall behind Gabby’s head.
“Hey, careful there,” Gabby said, returning the hug before looking around. “Where are we? Why am I not in my bed?”
“You were abducted by a bunch of griffons, I think... did they do something to you?” Nica looked around and swung her tail against the air as if trying to cut an invisible foe. “If they did hurt you, I’ll… well… I’ll captured them and deliver them to the authorities… if griffons have any police and prison that is.”
“What are you talking about. I don’t remember… ouch…” Gabby massaged her forehead with her talon.
“Does it hurt?” Nica asked, staring at her friend in worry.
“Just a headache, probably from overworking myself yesterday,” Gabby said before examining her surroundings. “But seriously, how did I end up here. Was I sleepwalking?”
Nica took a step back. What’s going on? She sat next to Gabby and rubbed her chin, now deep in thought. When that mean mob boss warned me of some mysterious being, I thought he either went crazy or was making things up, but now I’m not so sure. She glanced at Gabby with Mr. Patrick doing the same from the spot on her shoulder.
“What? What? Why are you staring at me like that?”
“So you don’t remember what happened a moment ago,” Nica asked, receiving a head-shake in response. She stood up and pulled Gabby to a standing position before climbing her back. “We need to go to Ponyville immediately and warn Twilight.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Gabby, please, just trust me on this. When I defeated the mob in Manehattan, their boss told me about some creature who puts curses on ponies while erasing their memories of the event. I fear the same happened to you.”
“Well… while what you say sounds crazy… you’re my friendly friend. Of course I’ll trust you.” She spread her large wings and bent her legs. “Hang on tightly. We’ll get to Ponyville in no time.”
Nica nodded before grabbing the griffon’s neck with her paws, holding it strongly. "Can we pick up my bag first?"
"Will do."
Nica wrapped her rat friend with black part of her tail, only to slid him into her shoulder-bag half a minute later. She felt strong wind pushing against her which was flapping her ears. Gabby’s speed proved not to be underestimated.
If what was happening was related to what happened to the mob boss and his best subordinates, more or less was related to dark magic which sealed her memories, the ponies she cared about could be in grave danger.