//------------------------------//
// (23) - A Shocking Revelation 
// Story: A Pokemon Problem 
// by Solecism 
//------------------------------//

A Pokemon Problem

(23) - A Shocking Revelation




You ever heard something that you simply didn't have an answer to? Well, that's how I felt when I heard Miranda's parting words. I always tried to keep Love, with a capital 'L,' out of my relationships; those three words almost always overcomplicated things.

I calmly thought all this as Miranda's form grew even brighter and taller. In a spark of concern, I adjusted her body so that she wouldn't impale herself on my nose-cone-spike-thing if she so much as twitched. Eventually, I realized that the safest—and least complicated thing—was to act like I hadn't heard her.

Yes, I know it was cruel. Yes, I know it was morally wrong. But you know what? I was in no position to be rekindling old relationships (even if the other party hadn't signed the release contract); I'd deal with my feelings at a later time—preferably one where I wasn't surrounded by explosives and a fire-wielding bird.

Seemingly on time with my decision, the light disappeared from Miranda's body and she swayed until I steadied her with a hand.

"What... happened?" she asked, twisting her neck back and forth, confused as to why her perspective was so radically different. "James?! Where are you?!"

I heard the panic in her voice, and answered quickly, "Look down."

She did, and then I saw it click in her head. Miranda spent roughly thirty seconds examining her new body before saying, "So this is what it feels like to be tall!" She snickered. "How's the view from down there? Hah! I always wanted to say that..."

As my hand extricated itself from my face, I thought, "That's all well and dandy, but we should probably catch up—"

"Oh! Yeah, you're right—here, let me drag you..."

/\/\/

I don't care what anyone says: having a girl strong enough to drag me around was certainly a nice change of pace. With the help of Miranda's six foot tall form and unnecessarily strong legs, we were able to catch up to the rest of the crew and explain (to Philomena in particular, who hadn't the slightest idea what evolution was (not that I blamed her)) what took us so long.

After that was explained, excluding what was discussed between Miranda and I (Ryder raised an eyebrow, but didn't comment), we traveled through the train cars, stopping at each one to briefly inspect the contents. The ninth and eighth carriages were full of straight-up apples; why they chose to keep the dynamite and hard liquor on the caboose was beyond me. The seventh one had a motley assortment of wood, nails, and other building material. One of the boxes containing what appeared to be some sort of jungle wood was knocked over, but nobody said it was them. I filed that away for later.

Finally, the sixth carriage held our quarry. Carefully, Miranda slid open the door and stopped dead in her tracks. I heard several gasps. Curiosity got the better of me and I pushed up with my arms, using them like a pair of stilts to see over Seth.

If I had a mouth, I'm sure that I would've gasped as well.

Crisscrossing the interior of the dark train car were strands of what appeared to be spider string, and every so often, a spark would run along the length of one before fizzing out of existence.

"What the f—" Ryder began, only to be cut off by a muffled groan.

I tried to pierce the darkness of the train car and determine where the moan came from, but when that didn't work, I opened up my consciousness and tried to listen in to the thoughts around me. Ryder, Seth, and Miranda's mental monologue was hidden from me, but Philomena's (she was thinking about cake at that moment, which struck me as odd) and someone else's weren't.

The mysterious someone's thoughts were a jumbled, incoherent mess—much like the carriage that currently had the amount of spider webs one would expect in a basement that hadn't been opened for a century. The thoughts—pleas, rather—all had one thing in common: they were terrified, and they wanted to escape. Soft whimpers permeated the air.

"Hello?" I whispered, or at least, the thought-equivalent of a whisper.

The whimpers ceased, and whatever small, jerky movements they were making subsided as well. Their thoughts were reeling, confused, and unsure of what to do.

"Where are you?"

They continued giving me the silent treatment, but their thoughts betrayed their anxiety.

"It's okay," I thought. "We're not going to hurt you if you don't hurt us. All you have to do is think about where you are, and—"

Seemingly unbidden, a thought of 'left side, in the corner' flew out of their mind before they had a chance to quell the thought and banish it to a far recess of their mind.

"Whoever they are, they're in the left side corner. Can someone—?"

"Ow!"

I glared at Miranda, who had tried to brush the cobwebs aside and received a jolt for her effort. She looked back at me sheepishly and stood back; some of her feathers were sticking straight up.

"Can someone who isn't affected by electricity please clear a path for the rest of us?" I finished, turning my attention to Seth, our resident Ground-type.

It took him a couple of seconds to realize that I was referring to him. "Oh—oh! You mean me!"

"No, I mean the other person that's immune to electricity here," I thought dryly. "Yes, I mean you."

Seth looked at the dark, dreary carriage covered in spider webs, then looked back at me. "But I'm going to get covered in it! How hard do you think it's going to be to get cobwebs out of my fur? I mean look at it!" He shook like a dog, and his mass of hair shook with him.

"We'll give you a haircut after." I glanced at the Blaziken standing to the right. She waved. "Or we could always burn your hair off if it's bothering you that much."

Seth made a gulping noise that seemed exaggerated. "I'm going, I'm going! Sheesh."

Philomena hopped down from her perch on Seth's hunched back, and Ryder transferred his hand to one of the triangular spikes protruding from my torso so he didn't get zapped.

As Seth slowly made his way through the train car, breaking every electrified thread that he could, Philomena made a comment that I had been waiting for.

"You are all unlike anypony or anyone else that I've had the pleasure or misfortune to come across. Where do you hail from, Little Guy?"

"A place called 'Earth,' located very far away," I replied. "And what are we, then? A pleasure or a misfortune?"

Philomena ruffled her feathers and began preening almost immediately, a habit I noticed her do whenever she was met by something that made her uncomfortable. "You're... strange. Not a pleasure, nor a chore, just... strange. Are everyone who live in 'Earth' as different as you four are?"

"No. Most are even stranger." She made a soft clucking sound that I took to represent a laugh.

By the time I looked back at through the doorway, the bottom three-and-a-half feet were free of cobwebs. That was more than enough for everyone present, with the exceptions of Miranda and I; she had to crawl on her hands and knees to get through, but I had to tank through. Each time I dragged myself closer, I was struck by the sensation of touched a fly zapper: not as painful as it could've been, but it was still a royal pain in my lower abdomen. Before I pulled myself out of that dark and spooky carriage, I still had one more thing to do.

I reached over with my left hand, the one that looked like a half-melted candlestick, and plunged it into the veritable nest of spider string. Ploughing through the pain of a hundred stinging sensations, amplified by my injury, I found a solid heap that resisted my movement, and pulled it free and behind me as I crawled out of that carriage and into the next. Miranda lent me a helping hand (hah), this time keeping her wrist flames to a minimum size, as they had scorched me a little bit the first time she dragged me.

Before I could take a closer look at who or what was wiggling around in the spider web cocoon and making agitated noises, something jumped on top of me and yelled, "Another one, huh?! I'll knock all of your bloody blocks off, you pony bastards!"