//------------------------------// // 245. Troubled Treatment Transportation. // Story: Baa-Ram-Ewe! // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// -Slightly after noon, The Greenleaf Aurora Bridge, Pom- After everyone was healed by Chansey, who apparently had moves that can heal most injuries, we quickly set out for the bridge and made it here in record time. I had several worries about Pokémon now, Vetali seemed like a nice goat lady. She of course is capable of firing a beam of raw solar energy out of her mouth with force and eventually Favela will be capable of doing that too if she chose to learn how to. Favela was another kid for me to worry about, but she could at least mostly survive off sunlight and water. So I wouldn’t have to find ways to feed a second goat with an overly ravenous mouth. Besides Favela’s rivalry and friendship with Shanty would be good for the both of them. Learning what the move ‘Substitute’ does weirded me out, Quetal was very upfront with the information. In fact, Quetal seemed to be trying to endear himself to my group, even if his slightly gruff personality read almost as cold as his somewhat dark appearance. I was beginning to think Quetal in a similar vein to Oleander until I was proven otherwise, that is that Dark did not always equate to evil. Still, we would eventually need to know more about Quetal. I fear he had ulterior motives with joining us given he was waiting in a dark corner for us to ask around for assistance. I was guessing Dark Types were closer to more nocturnal capable Pokémon or more towards fighting dirty. I didn’t mind fighting dirty if it kept me alive and if Quetal proved pragmatic enough, we would get along swimmingly. Quetal’s limbs ending in sharp claws was no different than when Shanty swung her hooves about to me. Shine… I was actually comfortable with her, despite being part ghost. The only thing about Shine that I was curious about is her Fire Type move, which she refused to use around a town positively covered in decorative foliage and plant life for exceedingly obvious reasons. Now if I can get my mind on more important matters, I just had to ask… “What happened?” Asking that as I walked up, the two Breloom named Luke and Brisk looked behind them at the destroyed bridge. They then return their fairly upset gazes to me. “Someone destroyed the bridge and they used one of the heaviest things they could find apparently.” Luke turned and pointed out that the remaining one fourth of the bridge was on Greenleaf’s side. The other Three fourths were completely decimated. “Sorry we couldn’t prevent this from happening, even if we had already guessed it was going to. You might want to make haste to the southern bridge into Fontaine, the bridge to Aurora is close by enough that you can still make it into Aurora before nightfall and someone can figure out another way to intercept you.” “That boulder is being pretty big!” Shanty be staring at it alongside Dolly with a display of concern I was probably showing myself. “There be such a Pokémon capable of throwing something of that size?” “Oh, that’s not a boulder… that’s… actually a Pokémon. It’s a Snorlax to be specific, it’s a very good thing it didn’t wake up in the commotion of destroying the bridge. they are better off sleeping and can be really hard to fight when awake. Not to mention they can eat at least twice their body weight in food over the course of half a day that would lead to a great famine if they aren’t quickly put back to sleep. It’s a good thing they breed far slower than molasses.” We all froze at what Brisk was saying and then looked at the large boulder as it shifted slightly on the far side of the deep river to reveal a cat like head snoring away. “Ninety percent of their energy thankfully comes from sleeping for long periods of time, but it still isn’t a good idea to approach a Snorlax, they have moves that are specifically geared to be used while they are sleeping. It is best to never fight one and to ultimately leave it sleeping, they are heavy sleepers as you can very well make out from here.” “That… is a Pokémon… that mass... is a Pokémon… heh… hehehahahah… I think my mind might be a moment from snapping.” Very clearly horrified here, given I saw what looked like a land whale had beached itself partially in the river on a large broken chunk of the bridge. That it slept through having its body being used as a force of destruction that took out most of the bridge was clearly absurd to a degree my mind was having trouble grasping. “Are you sure you don’t have any ideas who could have done this?” “Don’t rightly know who could use the Snorlax’s body to destroy the bridge like this. With the momentum it had hitting the bridge, I know for a fact that the Snorlax itself couldn’t have possibly done this.” Luke turned to me and pointed south. “We’ll escort you half way to the southern bridge and then we’ll break off for Arbora Town. We’ll send a message out to King Motonari tomorrow morning about the problem, you guys should quickly use the southern bridge before someone tries to stop you from leaving Greenleaf entirely in a more lethal manner. With the way things are going today, things aren’t getting any less eventful around here and I’m glad to see you found some traveling companions.” “Right, Geoff turn the cart around! We need to move fast, we’ll rush the southern bridge and slow down once we’re well on the other side.” I stopped and thought about something. “How much weight do you think you can handle if I were to push?” -Two hours later, Fontaine Kingdom, Forest Wetlands, Smolder- We were making good time with the Breloom guards helping push the cart. After they left for Arbora Town it was up to Pom to start pushing the cart with Geoff steering and pulling it along, paranoia power got us pretty far even if Ocellus was complaining about Pom’s spiking emotions being like an ice pick stabbing into her nerves. Dolly was trying to keep Pom calm by talking to her, but it clearly wasn’t working. We all took took turns riding on the cart and even Pom swapped out with Jiri or Quetal in pushing the cart along. We made it across the bridge into Fontaine without any trouble, but then Geoff had to go and make a comment by noticing something odd was going on as we took a break. “Strange, there aren’t any wonderful water types frolicking around the bridge, the effervescent glow of a happy Squirtle’s shell, the belly spiral of a Poliwhirl, there isn’t even a single leggy Surskit and you’d think we’d have seen at least one unit from the Dutiful Ducks Battalion around the forest wetland path. Usually this bridge would have water Pokémon highly active around it.” Geoff sat down and sighed audibly, the dude needed a break. He also needed to stop looking at Pom with affection because she clearly doesn’t appreciate it. “Once we get through the forest wetlands by following the path east, the bridge will be directly to our north, we should be back in Aurora in no time at all once we get there.” We couldn’t very well cross the river around the destroyed with the medicinal shipment, but I was getting a foreboding feeling in my gut and it wasn’t what I had for lunch. Also how useful would I really be against Water Types? My fire wouldn’t do much to them considering what we’ve been told about the battle triangle of the countries around Aurora and we’ve already seen Favela create a small tidal wave already and she wasn’t even a Water Type. A Water Type would probably do it larger and with more force. “Should I go scout around while you guys take a break?” I’ve been meaning to stretch my wings today and I could make myself useful. “Also what’s this Dutiful Ducks Battalion thing look like if I see something?” “They usually consist of some of the cutest yellow bipedal Pokémon with the adorably round bills and yellow down called Psyducks. They tend to be armed with small swords, shields and some specialty helmets to help them deal with a species specific constant migraine. They have incredibly rare psychic type abilities, but are not Psychic Type Pokémon themselves. They can hardly control the incredible power within them and they are pure water type species, which are easily recognized by their vacant expressions.” Geoff cleared his throat and continued, because of course he did. “With evolution they become a larger blue duck, usually with a red jewel in their forehead, which are equally attractive and much cooler looking. They are called Golducks and are usually the much stronger, smarter and better armed of the Dutiful Ducks Battalion that makes up Fontaine’s more elite soldiers, hey have a much better handle on the psychic powers which become far weaker with their evolution. It’s a bit of a mystery why they evolve to be less potent in that given area, but those blue ducks are wonderfully exuberant and quite friendly.” “Anything else I should be on the lookout for?” Not about to take off before I got everything out of Geoff, so far I’ve paraphrased all his talking down to just yellow and blue bipedal ducks. “Well there’s the Auxiliary Dutiful Ducks members which consist of Lotad, Lombre and Ludicolo, they are Water and Grass Types. If the Dutiful Ducks aren’t out in force, then maybe their auxiliary members are about? Basically if you see something that looks like a living lily-pad or a large round dancing thing with what looks like it has a sombrero as a part of its body, then you’ve seen all the members of that particularly species of Pokémon.” Right Geoff, so two ducks of a single color and a bunch of living lily-pads go it. “Ahh… they are so lively at parties and a nice shade of green too!” “Okay, I’ll be back soon!” I flying up above the dry path leading through the wetlands and the forest, I flew forward to go see what was ahead and if there was any more trouble for us today. We’ve had some of the Raiders that were causing problem with Aurora, a mysterious bow wielding Pokémon that attacked Pom, Thieves that were trying to attack us for a variety of reasons and at this point Pom’s nerves were getting on Ocellus’s nerves. We had right to be paranoid after the bridge was destroyed with that huge Snorlax thing. What were we going to deal with next? -Pom- We had the rest of the day to get the supplies back and instate Jiri as an official military member of Aurora. I knew what a Miltank was and why they would call this a Miltank run, because Miltanks were pretty darn fast at rolling or running. It was supposed to be a quick in and out, maybe spend some time with the locals of Greenleaf and then return to Aurora Castle. This whole trip had been anything but simple since it started from crossing the bridge. There were people out there making absolutely sure that today was going to go badly for us, at least we didn’t have to step with those thieves. Favela, Shine and Quetal handled themselves really well despite being barely more organized than their opponents. I’m still finding it hard to believe that those thieves might have survived that Solar Beam attack after threatening Vetali’s daughter and if they did… what did that say about general Pokémon toughness? I spotted Smolder coming back in for a landing after a good ten minute break. “Saw something really odd up ahead, I didn’t see any living lily pads or sombrero dudes, but there are a lot of those yellow ducks in the forest wetlands and crossroads leading to the bridge and there’s something off about them.” Here Smolder paused and looked around to make sure she had all our attentions. “Their eyes were glowing.” “Well when a Psyducks eyes glow blue or they are shrouded in a psychic aura, they are about to unleash their psychic powers, which usually come in two forms. Either a Confusion attack or a Psyshock attack.” Geoff still sounded rather optimistic. “Were they doing combat exercises by any chance?” “No, they didn’t appear to be doing exercises with one another and they looked to be searching for something. Probably us.” Yeah, that checks Smolder, with our luck they would probably be targeting wouldn’t they? “Also what I want to know is, what do red glowing eyes signify?” “Red glowing… that’s not good at all!” Geoff looked about worriedly and was appearing quite frantic. “How many of them had these glowing red eyes?” “All of them.” When Smolder said that Geoff paled visible, while everyone else stared at him curiously. “There were five full units of those small yellow ducks to the far to the east and south at the cross roads, there are also five full units directly in our way to the bridge in the forest. So that’s what… thirty guys in our path and sixty more that can show up as backup that we likely have to get the medicinal supplies by? They seem to be patrolling the crossroads for some reason.” “That many… how could someone mind control that many of the Dutiful Ducks Battalion, that’s almost a fifth of their full strength in that one area!” Did Geoff just say mind control? He said Mind Control didn’t he? Pokémon could do that?! “We must now assume that Fontaine is horrible and sadly compromised! Think of all those poor beautiful Pokémon being under someone’s hideously enticing thrall like that!” Of course Geoff was somewhat attracted to the idea of being mind controlled too… why wouldn’t he be? If someone were to ask what a Wooloo’s kinks were, the response would simply be ‘yes’ at this point. I sighed audibly and sat back looking at the path forward, there was no other way we were getting the medicine back to Aurora in a timely manner I’d think, but I still had to ask. “Is there any way we can get off the road and go around them and get to the bridge quietly?” I’m still trying to piece together how all of today’s events were possibly related. “Ignis is the only other way into Aurora and we can’t very well drag the cart through the wetlands, it might sink into a sinkhole or get stuck in the bog.” Geoff would know so that means… “We have to stay on the paths.” The sad conclusion I came to was that all the events couldn’t be related to us being here in some way. The Riolu Raiders were specifically there to stop the medicine shipment until they saw me, then they wanted to capture me for their leader. Don’t know what the Decidueye was about, but they were definitely targeting and singling me out specifically. They didn’t look at anyone else in my group or target our slowest member Ocellus with an arrow for a sure kill, they just wanted me dead specifically and looked shocked that I spotted them. The thieves were technically after us and they targeted us as a group while basically attempting a mugging that went quite horribly wrong for them. None of these events were related to one another, aside from the destruction of the bridge possibly being related to the raiders. Someone definitely didn’t want the medicine shipment to go through and possibly knew what was happening to the north and south of Aurora. This event is likely something that was happening that we were just coming across incidentally, just because we wouldn’t go through Ignis to get back to Aurora. There was a large, certainly not anywhere close to zero, chance of us being attacked and the medicine meant for the people of Aurora being stolen if we tried to pass through Ignis. To think, here I was worried about getting hit by giant beams. Mind control was something far worse for us to run into and a ridiculous ramp up from what we’ve been dealing with today. I quickly glanced at Ocellus to see how she reacted to the news, she wasn’t taking it well judging by how she sat up straighter, her eyes going wide and glassy. Smolder moved over to her and took her right hoof in her left claw and giving it a squeeze, Ocellus blinked and looked at Smolder. She gasped and tried to pull away, but Smolder held firmly while looking her in the eyes until she calmed down. “How dangerous are these Psyducks and do any of you have any ideas?” We had to push through the Dutiful Duck Battalion units, while I wanted to figure out a way to free them from whoever or whatever was controlling them… we probably didn’t want to get bogged down with fighting just thirty of them with that many units in the area. “Very, especially if they still have use of the portion of their minds that allow them to do unit commands.” They probably would Geoff, I know how our luck works. “Six Psyducks firing off a combined Psyshock, it would be a concentrated destructive and volatile thing of beauty… one I don’t think any of you or the medicine would survive a direct hit from. They got us at range and are good up close too.” “We move the cart as fast as we can and don’t stop as we make for the bridge. No stopping to fight entire units. We don’t need to complicate or overthink things, just blitz straight past them.” Offering the obvious option was Quetal with his arms crossed. Now that I looked at the sneaky weasel with the one feather ear and feathery tail thing, the way he held his arms crossed like that looked defensive and made him seem vulnerable and not the dangerous. In fact I’d say he’d cut a rather dashing figure if he didn’t have a grim frown on his face. “If all we need to do is keep any of them from destroying the cart, then we will just run interference and provide them with targets to focus on so they ignore the cart.” I gulped a bit, knowing we’d need volunteers to draw fire and that I’d be one of them. “Favela and Geoff will pull the cart while Jiri pushes.” Announced Shine. “Yeah, that works… how good are you guys in a fight?” Quetal turned to me. “Once we start heading towards the bridge there will be no stopping. We of course will be going before the cart and starting a ruckus.” “We can hold our own, no worries about that. Shanty, Dolly and I are basically the combat experts of our group.” At least Shanty was far better at taking care of herself now so I had less to worry about and Dolly was quite agile. “Ocellus is more back up and emergency help. Smolder has been near indestructible in our travels and is capable enough in her own right in a fight… but I don’t think that will be the case in this world. How fast are these Psyduck?” “Fortunately not very on foot, but we will need to occupy their attentions fully to make sure they don’t even get an opportunity to target the cart.” Quetal looked at Smolder and Ocellus. “You two can fly right? You can protect the cart by drawing fire in the air. The rest of us are going to be draw as much of their attentions away from you as we can. One person per full unit of Psyduck to draw attention. Six to one odds… what I have I gotten myself into? Well… are we doing this sometime today while we still have daylight or not?” “May I make a suggestion here?” We all nodded to Shine to take the “I think Favela should be on the offensive, they are Water Types and her Razor Leaves and Vine Whips would be helpful with taking some of them down quickly, I’ll be a pusher instead. We could start things off with you and her attacking at range.” “Hmm… but that would be putting her in the path of danger.” Quetal sounded like he was actually worried about Favela. “Hey, I, Favela, can easily keep up with you, you’ll see!” Favela stated as she moved forward to glare at Quetal. “Fine, let’s get moving.” Quetal turned and started down the path slowly. -Quetal- I had to do this. Help the outsiders, that I would also be helping a lot of Pokémon doing this was a good thing. Glancing at Favela, I was mildly worried about the Skiddo that had confidence, but that didn’t exactly equate to competence. Shine was correct that Favela would be a big help here and if Shine was near enough, she could Ally Switch Favela to safety if things go horribly wrong and we got in over our heads again. “Wait…” I gestured with my claws for Pom, Dolly and Shanty to move forward slowly to the bush we were taking cover in. “The minute we attack that unit, we will begin moving.” Ahead on the path, six yellow ducks were meandering about with their red glowing eyes looking about seemingly at random while their hands were reaching for the hilts of their swords. Two other units were nearby in the wetlands looking about, but for what and who? The Outsiders haven’t been anywhere near Fontaine before now, so something else must be drawing the attention of the controlled ones to watch the crossroads. Who were they on the lookout for exactly? I seriously doubt medicine warranted this much attention from the one behind the mind controlled Pokémon. I can already tell a dark type or a psychic type were behind this, maybe even a ghost type even if it was unlikely because this wasn’t a bunch of possessions. Whoever they were, I wanted to deal with them personally, but I’m not dumb enough to run off on my own. “We’ll get into position in the trees to ambush the second unit and draw will attacks from the third.” Pom stated as Dolly, Shanty and her ran up the nearest tree and started to hop across the branches. We were going to need a lot of good Pokémon soon if the mind controlling Pokémon had already taken over the entirety of Fontaine. Aurora didn’t currently have many forces, Greenleaf was having internal issues and Ignis had an army, but they weren’t currently doing anything of note to stop what was happening in front of them or what was coming for that matter. Having seen the look on her face. It seemed that Pom, beyond everyone else, already understood what we were getting into here given the grim look on her face… War. The Ransei Region was going to have a lot problems soon… and I hope I was on the right side of history here. “Go!” I moved forward and started firing off stars from my mouth, doing a Swift attack as Favela moved with me and fired leaves into the pack of Psyducks before they could raise their shields in defense. -Spatial Pocket Realm, Arceus- I was just going to watch, all I needed to do was all that I have already done. This day was the start of many things for the Ransei Region. On the other side of the world a figure would soon wake up as a Pokémon and would eventually solve that nasty little time travel issue. Let’s see if the various machinations of the ‘so called’ noble ones will even remotely begin pushing things in the right direction. One was already reliving their past mistakes. The end results of their will speak quite loudly as karmic retribution befalls them. Another in particular was already of ‘legendary’ consequences in the power they had been gifted with, given how they threw that Snorlax at the problem. They thought that simple actions would change the course of history to resolve things in their favor or to their very whims. They were currently both too haughty and blind to the change others can cause just by existing, no matter how lowly. Even a simple Bug Type in the right place can defeat the greatest of us. … I calmly teleported a Caterpie five feet to the left, seemingly at random, with a smile. Okay, now I didn’t have to do anything, the consequences of that were going to be quite humorous later on. Also let’s see how the so called ‘legendary’ one among them deals with a Grubbin eventually becoming their worst nightmare. ... Bored I was not. … As I had told Pom, she did not need not to be the hero and I had not lied about that. Things would ultimately resolve themselves one way or another, even if all Pom did was spend all her time quietly as a maid. Cooking, cleaning and organizing things for King Evan. Would she yearn to do more, or would she eventually quail before the might of what Pokémon are capable of? I not only wanted to see her survive in this world, I wanted to see her absolutely thrive. There were those who were already trying to become heroes to stop the rising chaos, some were already well on their way to being and then there were the heroes that were already there in plain sight. All the various pieces began to make their moves around Ransei.