//------------------------------// // Chapter 11 // Story: Absolution 2 // by ed2481 //------------------------------// After her disastrous attempts to retrieve a plate, and Eclair making a brief stop to pick up the broken pieces, and getting a plate down for Applejack, the mare sat at the table slowly eating an array of berries. The mare marveled a bit at how they tasted similar to other fruits and vegetables she ate back home, save for the lack of looking anything like them. She also swore that every time she finished one, she felt something ‘perk’ in her body, whether it be one of her senses, or feeling a jolt of energy run down her spine. Applejack shook her head. Nothing here is simple is it? she asked herself as she tossed a red berry in her mouth and began to chew. Her eyes snapped open as the smouldering juices washed over her tongue and burned their way down her throat. She spit the chewed berry out and quickly reached over for the glass of water and began chugging it down in large gulps. She let out a relieved sigh as she pulled the glass away from her mouth as the spiciness began to fade away. Note to self, don’t eat the red, skinny one, she told herself as she picked the plate up with her teeth and walked over to a trash can to dispose of the leftovers, before placing it in the sink. Afterwhich, she glanced at the doors leading back to the arena, debating whether or not to return. She glanced over at Ohm, who had long ago walked back to the couch and was now fast asleep, laying down the length of the couch. There really was nothing else for her to do in the room, so with a small sigh Applejack set off down the hallway and back towards the arena. When she arrived, she saw that there was yet another new human standing across from Matt, he had a determined look on his face, blonde hair close cropped and neat. Standing in front of the new human was a crimson Absol that looked much like Belle except for the fact that it was clearly a male. “Okay, Bucky, you can do it!” the new human shouted. Facing off against the red Absol was Cres who stood a little in front of Matt, looking infuriatingly calm and confident. “Shall I do this myself Matt, or would you like to have some input?” Cres asked over his shoulder. “I’ll give you input if you need it,” he replied. “Though... I don’t think I will have to do that much,” he added with an analyzing look over at the human and the red Absol. “I don’t either,” Cres agreed with a small grin as he stepped forwards and waited for the referee to start the round. The referee looked at both humans before raising both flags and swinging them down. “Begin!” The red Absol took off like a jet, aiming right for Cres, but as he approached, Cres almost daintily stepped to the side around the first swing and brought his blade slashing down across his opponent’s back. Bucky let out a small yelp of pain as he skidded to a stop and turned to face Cres, an annoyed growl leaving his throat. “You’re fast, but you could use a little bit of practice as far as coordination go,” Cres said with a confident smile. “I’ll show you coordination,” Bucky growled before the human shouted. “Use Quick Attack!” Again, Bucky took off like a pegasus, leaving a small red trail behind as he made a beeline for Cres. Cres for his part remained completely still as the red blur shot at him until the last second, his paws moved to the left as his blade dipped down, flat edge first, and Bucky was suddenly airborne. “AH!” Bucky yelp in surprise before landing with a hard ‘oomph’ on the ground. “In the wild that would be the feeling of you losing a leg,” Cres called over to him. “It’s best to avoid that oddly enough.” The red absol just growl more in annoyance as he glared bitterly at Cres. “Stop being so preachy and just fight!” he exclaimed as he got back onto his feet. “I will once you start fighting,” Cres replied, pretending to dust himself off slightly with a paw. “At the moment all you’ve done is stir up the dust.” “Stirring up dust!?” Bucky shouted, insulted by Cres’s remarked. “I’ll show you stirring up dust!” His blade glowed a brownish color and he lowered his head down to the ground swiped it up, creating a whirling sandstorm inside the gym. Applejack covered and turned her face away, closing her eyes before sand could really get into them. “Hey Bucky, I didn’t tell you to used Sandstorm!” she heard the other human yelled over the raging wind. Meanwhile, within the sandstorm, Bucky grinned. Clearly, the white Absol hadn’t been expecting that! “Neat move,” Cres’s voice suddenly spoke from beside him. “Too bad I’m kind of used to it.” Bucky’s eyes widened as he whirled around, swinging a Nightslash at where he heard the voice. He touched nothing and heard only a mocking laugh. “Reflexes need a bit of work too don’t they?” Cres asked from his other side. “Yours are a little slow for someone so fast.” Again Bucky swung wildly at where Cres was mocking him, only to slice nothing once more. Bucky panted in place as grains of sand slapped him across the face, digging painfully into his fur. Then he heard an odd sound, it was as if the wind pouring the sandstorm had been... claimed. Then like a head butt from an Aggron, the winds whirling around him crashed into the crimson Absol, sending him slamming into the ground as the sandstorm ceased to exist. “Bucky is out!” the referee shouted, as the red Absol’s eyes spun and the man raised a red flag at Matt. “The winner of the match and challenge is Gym Leader Matthew!” Cres smirked and bounded back to Matt. “Ah, nothing I like more than teaching younger Absol what it really means to battle,” the white Absol said with a smirk. “Enjoy it while it lasts,” Matt said with a small chuckle as he grabbed one of his crutches and head off to speak with the other human. Cres on the other hand smiled happily and glanced around the Gym until he spotted Applejack staring at him. In response, he met her gaze and smirked darkly. The mare just narrowed her eyes at him and scoffed as she continued to head for the stands like she should’ve done before. Except now she had layers of sand to shake off because of Cres taunting. The white Absol just smirked and walked over to where Bucky was laying on the ground, panting. “In the future, I’d recommend taking your time a bit more,” Cres said as he plopped himself down in front of the other Absol. “And listening to your trainer a bit more couldn’t help.” Bucky scowled a bit at him as he rubbed a paw over his head. “Yeah, yeah... you didn’t seem to have that problem of listening. Your trainer didn’t say anything, and how is that supposed to be fair to us!?” “Matt didn’t need to tell me anything because I already know how to fight,” Cres answered calmly. “You and your trainer are young though so you need more help. As for being fair, it’s really more of an advantage for you. Humans are by and largely better at strategy then we Pokemon are so if you’d been listening to your trainer, maybe you wouldn’t have ended up eating so much sand.” “Hmph... yeah, whatever, next time you won’t so lucky,” Bucky said as he turned around and headed for his trainer. “Ah, to be young and Tauros-headed,” Cres mused to himself as he followed Bucky up to where Matt was talking with the other human. “Thanks... I wish I could have done better,” the teenager was saying. “It’s no problem,” Matt replied with a small shrug. “And hey, this was your first high level gym battle. It not going to be easy, you need to train harder and focus your training on your Pokemon’s stronger points.” “Yeah, you’re right,” the teen said, bending down to pat Bucky on the head. “Don’t worry Bucky, pretty soon you’ll be so fast that he won’t even be able to see you!” Bucky smiled at the thought of that as his trainer petted his head. Cres just smirked. “Anyways,” Matt spoke up. “You can rechallenge me next week or so if you want to, but based on your skill, I would recommend you to head over to Canalave City and take on the gym over there. I think some of your fire moves will work best there.” “Thank you for the advice sir,” the teenager said with a small nod. “I think I’ll do that,” he added before he turned and started walking away. “Come on Bucky, lets go get you and the Team some Poffins, you deserve em.” As the pair walked away, Cres glanced up at Matt, a smile on his face. “So, how long till they’re back do you think?” “Maybe for their seventh badge... or eighth if we’re lucky, which could mean a couple of months,” Matt replied as he rubbed two fingers under his chin. “I hope so, I always love eighth badge battles,” Cres replied. “No one has to hold anything back and you get a real rush out of it.” “Indeed,” Matt said with a chuckle of agreement. Cres smiled and cracked his neck from one side to the other. “That’s all our challengers for the day right?” “For your team anyways, I’m still waiting for the first timer to get here,” he said looking at his watch. “And she should come around in an hour or so.” “Alright then, I’m going to head home, if you don’t mind,” the Absol said with a small shake of his head. “Maybe catch a shower first, get some of this sand out of my fur.” “Probably a good idea,” Matt said with a nod of his head as he glance up to the stands. “You and Applejack both need to hit the showers to get sand off,” he noted as he watched the mare rubbing a hoof through her mane multiple times. “Oh wonderful,” Cres said before he glanced up at the mare. “Showers are down here if you need them,” he called up to her before he turned on his heels and headed for the shower room. The mare’s ears perked up as she glanced over to watch the Absol head off to a side of the gym, going through a set of doors. She frowned a bit in thought. A shower would help get rid of this sand... but being so close to Cres... Her frown deepened as the thought took a couple of moments to think about, before scratching a hoof over her coat. I just hope it has separate stalls for the showers, she mumbled in her mind as she reluctantly got up and headed down the stands. When she arrived in the shower room, she found that it did indeed have separate stalls and that the one on the very end was being used along with the sound of scrubbing from within. Figuring that was the one Cres was in, she choose to go into the stall at the far end opposite of that one, closing and locking the stall door behind her. Thankfully for her, showering wasn’t anything different back home, and while it took time to figured out which bottle held the shampoo and which had conditioner, it only took her a few minutes to quickly scrub all the sand off of her coat, mane, and tail. When she exited the shower, soaking wet, she saw Cres standing beneath an odd metal thing that was making a very loud racket. The Absol’s fur was being buffeted by blasts of hot air and he seemed to be enjoying it well enough, a small peaceful smile on his face, as he presented different body parts to the air dryer. She glanced around to see another metal contraption next to his, but opted out of it and looked around for a towel to use instead. Thankfully for her, she saw a rack of folded towels to the side and walked over to grab two before walking off to the side and begin drying herself. Cres pretended not to notice her, and instead opted to continue drying himself, enjoying the feeling of the incredibly warm air washing over his fur. The mare did the same, simply pretending Cres wasn’t there as she work rubbing the towel around her body. Eventually, the silence became uncomfortable. “So, did you enjoy the matches?” Cres asked her, the hot air ceasing, leaving him with the task of licking down his fur again. The mare’s ears simply twitched at his voice. “Enjoy trying to figure out why you fight each other? Not really,” she replied. “We fight for badges,” Cres answered, as if it was obvious. “And because it’s fun.” “Fun... hmph, that’s something a being like you would say,” she remarked dismissively. “And badges?” “It’s actually something that any Pokemon would say, not just ‘beings like me’. You saw that Gardevoir earlier, did she look anything like me?” Cres asked with a roll of his eyes. “And yes, badges.They’re a proof of a Team’s strength.” Applejack frowned slightly at his explanation and just shook her head. “Battles to prove each other’s strength... is that all you do every day?” “That and spend time with my family and friends,” Cres answered with a small shrug. “Why?” “It just sound very dull and repetitive,” she stated flatly. “Maybe to you,” Cres replied. “But to me, it’s a wonderful life. I get to do all of the things I enjoy most while spending time with the ones I care most about all the while. Of course, you spend all day kicking trees if I recall correctly, so I don’t think you have any right to judge my life on being repetitive.” “I kick trees to produce food for all of Ponyville and some parts of Equestria,” Applejack countered. “It’s a living that benefits me and other ponies, and I’m not going on some adrenaline rush to bash my hooves against someone else’s face.” “And what I do helps young trainers and Pokemon reach their goals and make money to live by,” Cres replied pointedly. “And I don’t just do it for ‘some adrenaline rush’. I do it because it’s fun, battling is one of the best ways that a Pokemon can really get to know another and themselves, and have a great time while doing so.” The mare shook her head once more, not really seeing the logic behind it. “Whatever... I really don’t see why that is,” she said, picking up her very damp towels and discarding them in the hamper. “Then that’s your own fault,” Cres stated blandly as he finished licking down his fur and headed for the door. “Follow me if you’d like to go back to the house or stay here if you’d prefer to go with Matt.” “I prefer to follow someone I trust a bit more,” she replied. “Whatever,” Cres said, walking out the door, leaving her alone in the shower room. The mare rolled her eyes and stayed in the shower room for a moment. Battle to get to know each other better... how in tarnation does that seem logical? she thought to herself with a shake of her head. Pointless violence is all I see... She shook her head once more and head out of the gym, hoping that whatever is going to happen next that it wouldn’t ruin her coat and mane again. Cres made his way home easily enough and found that there was only one other resident out and about, Emilia. The Glaceon was curled up on a bed specially made for ice type pokemon, making blankets feel incredibly cold. With a small sigh, Cres walked over and layed down in the sun beside her bed. “Emilia, you’re always cheerful and happy, I think I need your help,” Cres announced after a while. The Glaceon let out a small yawn as she open her eyes and look down at Cres from her bed. “What?” she ask, rubbing one of her paws over her eyes. “I need help dealing with Applejack,” Cres said with a sigh. “You’re always able to keep a cool head, or at the very least just smile your way through whatever happens... I on the other hand cannot.” “I see... you need some advice on how I do so?” she asked with a tilt of her head. “If you can,” Cres answered with a nod of his head. “Otherwise Belle is going to keep giving me little shocks.... and not the fun kind.” “Hmmm....” Emilia cross her forepaws over each other and rest her head on top of them. “Well... for one, smiling helps. If you can keep a smile, either big or small, it helps keep down some aggressive thoughts.” Cres frowned faintly. “I see... I supose that can work.” “Next, count to ten, or even twenty, or between,” she continued. “If you give yourself time to think, then you won’t say anything rash.” “Right... and that has always been something I’m fond of doing,” Cres said, nodding slowly. “Last, but not least, think positive,” Emilia said with a smile. “Your words reflect what’s going on in your mind, if you think about the good things in your life, your words will mimic your nature.” Cres mulled that all over for a moment before he smiled and leaned over to give her cold cheek a lick. “Thank you for the good advice Emilia, you may have just saved me from a rather painful few nights.” “You’re welcome Cres,” she said with happy smile. “I’m always glad to help out of member of our family.” “Well know that you truly have,” Cres replied before he curled up beside the bed. “I think I’ll lay beside you if you don’t mind.” “Not at all,” she said with a light chuckle as she curled back up in her bed. “Could always use a napping buddy since Ohm is away.” “Indeed,” Cres agreed with a small smile as he closed his eyes, though he spent quite a while thinking about what she’d said before he finally drifted off to sleep.