//------------------------------// // Chapter 18 // Story: Absolution 2 // by ed2481 //------------------------------// The Gym floor was pitch black, the only light coming from the waxing moon over head and the stars, streaming in through the uncovered glass skylight. The room itself was cold with very little heat running as Xav’s blue eyes darted around the rocky field at the center of the Gym, his father somewhere amidst them out of sight. Xav’s nose sniffed in the air as he slowly gazed over the dimly lit gym’s arena floor, his ears on high alert for even the slightest sound. Xav’s goal was to find his father amidst the rocks, find him, and take him down! That however was easier said then done. Joe and Eclair had set up the rocks so that they created a scattered, complex maze of stone, interrupting Xav’s vision. Despite his white fur, his father was proving to be an impressive hider. Of course, that wasn’t a surprise to the pup, his father was the best Absol around, of course he was good at hiding. However, even if the young Absol couldn’t see him, his nose wasn’t having any trouble finding his father’s scent. He pinpointed that his father was somewhere in south-west area of the gym and he slowly began to walk to that area through the maze of stone. He stayed as low as he could and walked as softly as possible as he followed the scent, letting it be his guide through the small maze. It was then that something odd happened. The scent trail... ended. Or rather... it went back the way he’d come. Xav blinked in confusion as he tried to figure out if this was some sort of trick to throw him off. No trick presented itself however and the scent trail did indeed head right back the way he’d come. The Absol turned around and followed the trail, his eyes carefully scanning as his nose guide the way. He reached another dead end, and a few sniffs confirmed that the trial started up again behind him, starting a foot away from where Xav was standing, very fresh. Xav’s fore brow furrowed and he followed the trail once more, picking up his pace. Another dead end, a trail a few feet behind him. “Gah, how is he doing that?” he whispered to himself as he turned around to follow the trail, this time going at a brisk run. Dead end. Dead end. Dead end. Dead end. Xav going faster and faster each time. “AH! WHERE ARE YOU!” Xav shouted out as he reached another dead end, getting a bit annoyed of the wild Wingull chase he was currently being led on. “Who, me?” his father’s voice asked from above him. Xav’s eyes widened and he jumped straight up, startled by hearing his father’s voice so close. “I’m right here Xav,” his father added, Xav’s eyes glancing up to see his father’s white silhouette looking down at him from atop a pair of the rocks, balanced easily on them. That was all the warning Xav got before his father tackled him from atop the rocks, driving him into the gym floor... or rather causing him to roll so that he ended up on his father’s chest. “Caught you.” Xav pouted a bit. “No fair, you didn’t say we could climb on the rocks.” “I never say we couldn’t,” his father replied, licking Xav’s face. “Besides, this is a good lesson to you for more than just that.” “But I was listen and keeping an eye out...” Xav protested. “Indeed you were, but you’re not very skilled at it just yet,” his father replied with a small chuckle, giving Xav another lick. “For example, you focused on your nose didn’t you? That’s why you kept getting lead into dead ends.” “Yeah... it’s the only real sense that is good for in the dark though; why didn’t I smell you climbing on the rocks?” “Hmmm, I think I may take a page out of your mother’s book for this answer,” his father replied. “As in, I will give you some of the information and let you piece the rest together by yourself. Sound fair?” Xav nodded his head. “Okay, well, every maze like this has rocks,” his father explained, leaning over and tapping the rock with his blade. “And even your sense of smell is only so good, it’s possible to throw it off a little by moving fast enough. Is that enough for you?” “But... shouldn’t I hear you if you were moving really fast, or even felt a small gust of wind?” Xav asked. “I don’t know Xav, how close were you really listening?” his father asked, raising an eyebrow at him. “Especially once the chase got going.” “...not very much,” the pup admitted a bit embarrassedly. “Ah, hmm, think on that,” his father said, leaning up to place his muzzle on the side of Xav’s head out of reach of the pup’s blade. “And in the meantime, we can snuggle.” “But I want to try again, I know I can-” a small yawn broke his sentence before he finished. “-catch you this time.” “Hmmm, I think you need a break,” his father replied, beginning to pur faintly. “A think break.” “I’m not tired,” Xav said before another yawn escaped from him. “I can stay awake,” he quickly added. “True but you’re in no shape to ‘try again’,” his father pointed out with a small chuckle, leaning down to lick Xav. “So lay here with me and think.” The purring intensified. “Think about what?” Xav asked, listening to the soft purring rumbling out of his father’s throat. “How I evaded you of course,” Cres replied, nuzzling him and continuing to purr. “I know you can figure it out son.” “You kept jumping up and down from the rocks... you’re faster than me so it was easy to keep ahead,” Xav replied, his voice sounding a bit far off. “Mmmm, close,” Cres replied with a small chuckle, still purring happily as he nuzzled his son. “Something that you should always remember Xav is the nature of your environment... for every wall there are two sides.” “Hmmm... did mom tell you that?” Xav asked with a small tired chuckle. “I may not be as smart as either of you, but I can come up with my own ‘wise’ sayings you know,” Cres replied with a chuckle of his own as his forepaws wrapped around the pup and pushed him further into his warm chest fur. “But no, in this case it’s very... literal.” “Noted,” Xav said, nuzzling his small snout into his father’s chest and letting out another yawn, his eyelids growing heavy. “Tell me in the morning Xav, that’s your assignment,” Cres stated with a smile as he leaned his head against Xav’s simply enjoying the feeling of togetherness. Xav didn’t reply save for the soft breaths he let out as had already fallen fast asleep against his father’s chest. Cres smiled and stayed like that with his son for half an hour before finally moving, slowly and carefully getting to his paws and moving down to grasp onto the sleeping ‘sack’ that was Xav’s fast asleep body by the back of his neck and carried him out of the gym floor and towards the front door. And then off through the city he carried Xav, the pup barely stirring as he levered open the window and jumped easily down into the kitchen after closing it. “Welcome back,” Ohm’s voice spoke out as the Luxray was laying curled up on his chair/bed, his face resting on his paws with his eyes closed. Cres carefully brought Xav over and sat him down beside Ohm on the chair, the pup’s body sliding down against the furrow of the chair’s arm, his head resting against Ohm’s. “Thank you,” Cres said with a smile. “I hope we didn’t wake you too much.” “Not at all, I’m always a quick and light sleeper,” the Luxray replied, shifting his head just slightly so Xav’s head was resting more on his mane rather than Ohm’s head. “I hope training went well.” “Mmm, yes and no,” Cres replied, leaning up to give the tip of the Luxray’s nose a lick. “He’s getting better with his nose but it’s blinding him a bit... I managed to get over the rock walls and onto the other side behind him before he could react with a bit of careful Quick Attacking.” “I see, the young pup needs to work on using his eyes and ears along with his nose,” Ohm commented. “After all, one needs to used more than just one of their senses to know what’s around them.” “Yes, yes they do,” Cres agreed, giving Ohm’s cheek a nuzzle before leaning down and giving Xav’s a lick. “Have a good night’s sleep Ohm, keep my boy safe you here?” he asked with a small, playful smirk. “Like that will need to be said,” Ohm said, a small smile forming on his sleeping face. “Good night Cres, sleep well.” Cres gave him a parting nuzzle and then walked quietly into the bedroom, finding Belle in her typical place in their bed, one eye open, glancing at him as he moved in beside her and laid his chest against her back. “I’m back,” he whispered in her ear. “I could tell,” she replied, giving him a small lick on his cheek. “I heard what you said to Ohm, it seems our son can be clueless in some areas huh?” “I wouldn’t say clueless,” Cres replied laying his head against hers as he wrapped his forepaws around her. “He just gets... what’s the phrase? Tunnel eyes?” “Tunnel vision,” Belle corrected. “But yes, he does do that sometimes. He is still young after all, so it’s not much of a surprise. Hopefully our teaching he will bring him out of it sooner or later.” “Hopefully,” Cres agreed as he began to purr and leaned down to lick her. “Still, he’s our wonderful little pup and that’s all that really matters hmm?” “Mhm, that it is.” Belle leaned into Cres’s side. “Anyways, you better get your rest. After all, you do have a long day ahead of you. At least four gym battles I believe, all of them looking to claim their fifth or sixth badge.” “True... but you’re rather soft,” he replied, still holding her in his forepaws. “I think I might just stay awake and... hold you for a bit.” He licked her again, still purring. “Hehe, just don’t stay up too long like Applejack did, she fell asleep while watching the TV.” She chuckled lightly. “It was a quite an amusing sight to walk into.” “Ah,” Cres replied, still purring. “Though I was hoping you’d stay up with me... it’s always better to snuggle with someone who’s awake as well.” “Mmmm, I’ll try,” Belle replied as she moved her head closer to his. “But no promises, after all you’re soft too. I could just fall asleep like this right now,” she said, a pleasured purr rolling out of her. “Besides, you know we would make too much noise if we do anything more than this.” “True... but Matt and Roxanne keep us up,” Cres replied playfully before settling down. “But I suppose you’re right, it is rather late.” “Yes, and you need all your energy for the battles tomorrow,” Belle stated before licking the side of his face. “Though if we have the time, maybe when you’re done with battling we can slip out and enjoy snuggling somewhere else, hmm?” “Mmmmmmm sounds wonderful,” Cres replied quietly as he moved a little so that he was a bit less awkwardly positioned and his head leaned against hers before playfully adding. “And after I go to all the trouble of finding a ‘sitter’ for Xav too.” “I’m sure Ohm can bother watching Xav more and Xav will be okay in spending more time with ‘uncle’ Ohm, so I’m sure we can slip by unnoticed, heh.” Belle let out a small, pleasant sigh as she closed her eyes. “Sleep well my love.” “And you as well, my lovely Belle,” Cres replied, closing his eyes and letting a deep purr wash through his body as he held her close. “Forever and always.” A happy smile crossed Cres’s face as he walked into the apartment's main room. It was a morning like any other and he was happy to say that everything seemed to be going well. He could see Matt and Roxanne eating at the breakfast table, Xav and Belle beginning to get ready for their day of study, Ohm asleep on his chair. A happy sigh left his throat. This was his life now and he loved every second of it. A low muttering grumbled murmure reached his ears from behind before a groggy looking Applejack walked past him, bumping him out her way. “Out of my way,” she grunted to him as she headed to the kitchen table. Cres blinked and shook his head, not wanting to start anything over such a minor incident. Instead he just followed her into the kitchen, he was hungry from last night’s training session. As he walked into the kitchen itself, he started towards the fridge only to discover that Applejack was standing in front of it. The door was open but she clearly had no idea what she was looking for. “Would you either pick something or let someone who knows what everything is pick for you?” Cres inquired sourly, his stomach growling loudly. “I’m starving and you’re in the way.” The mare glanced over at him sourly. “I doubt it will kill you to wait a few extra seconds to get yourself some meat,” she told him flatly before turning her eyes back to resume scanning through the tupperware containing the berries. Cres bit back a growl and simply stood there impatiently, tapping a claw on the tiled floor. She was taking forever! “Oh just hurry up!” he exclaimed in annoyance. “The red ones are sweet, the orange ones are sour, the blue ones are tangy and the purple ones make you pretty, it’s not that difficult!” “Oh calm down Cres, let her choose what she wants to eat,” Matt spoke up from his seat next to Roxanne. “It’s not like she’s purposely doing it.” “Fine... she’s just being really slow,” Cres muttered, turning away from Applejack and walking over to sit down beside Matt’s chair. The pony rolled her eyes and reached over to grab the container holding the red berries. She walked away and closed the fridge door with the simple push of her right rear leg. “I’m right here you know,” Cres grunted as he walked over towards the fridge. “You could have left the door open.” Applejack moved over to the empty seat and set the tupperware down. “Well if you’re that hungry then I’m sure you can open the door yourself to grab your meat. Unless all that ‘starving to death’ is making you too weak to do so,” she remarked. “Please, I’m more than strong enough to open a simple door,” Cres replied, rolling his eyes. “I’m stronger than you at the very least so I know that I can manage the door.” “Then I don’t see why you’re complaining so much,” Applejack stated with a scoff. “I mean, you were whining so much I thought you just had to get to your meat as soon as possible or else you parish where you stand. Hmph, sometimes you predators are just so big headed that you think you’re better than the rest.” “I’m better than you and that’s all that matters,” Cres said blandly. “And what does my being a predator have to do with my wanting to eat?” “Because of just what you said,” Applejack replied in sour tone. “So what if you can beat me in a battle, what really makes you greater than me? I tell you it’s because in that big head of yours you think yourself as a predator who so high in the food chain that everyone must bow to you in awe!” Cres blinked. “I think no such thing,” he replied in irritation. “I simply want to eat my breakfast! Now quit nagging me!” He huffed. “Oh sure,” Applejack said with another rolled of her eyes. “I’m sure you say that everytime you kill someone, even if they plead for their life. ‘I got to eat’ you tell them right before you tear their throat out and watch them choke on their own blood.” “Usually I don’t talk to them,” Cres said with a shrug. “And they know why they’re hunted already so there wouldn’t be much point in my doing it.” “Sure, that’s what you tell yourself every time you have a full stomach and their remains just laying before you,” the mare remarked sourly. “Because that’s how you think, you’re the predator and they are prey, thus making you better than the rest.” “Did you just use the word ‘thus’?” Cres asked, arching an eyebrow at her. “I didn’t know you knew that word. Heck, I hardly know that word.” “I might be a farm pony, but that doesn’t mean I know fancy words,” the pony remarked, shaking her head as a small chuckle rolled out of her. “But it doesn’t surprise me, what do fancy words do for a predator like yourself? You don’t really need them to display the message ‘I’m predator you are prey’.” “That sounds about right,” Cres agreed with a small shrug. “I know what I need too to do what I do, and that’s fight for my master in battle.” The mare scowled at Cres. “That’s all you care about huh? Fight, fight, fight, fight fight for your ‘master’.” She let out a snort. “You know what, I can fight too now, and with this newfound skill I bet I can take you out easily. Maybe then I can stomp out that big head of yours.” Cres snorted in return. “Please. You couldn’t touch Ohm unless he wanted you too and I’m at least as fast as him,” he replied. “Sure, I might not be on his level but I’m more than a match for a malfunctioning Ponyta with an attitude problem.” A low chuckled rolled out the mare as she slid off of her chair and stood in front of Cres. “Maybe... but I remember doing a move that affected the whole arena floor.” She raised a hoof and rubbed under her chin. “What did Ohm tell me what it was... oh yes.” She reared up on her hind legs and smiled darkly at Cres. “Magnitude.” Cres’ eyes widened. “You wouldn’t, it would bring the roof down and the floor out from under us!” he exclaimed, his eyes narrowing at her. “Exactly,” she replied before slamming her front legs down. Almost immediately, the whole room began to shake violently. Cres’s eyes narrowed and he launched himself at her, or rather, tried too. The second that his forepaws left the floor, a chunk of ceiling sailed down and slammed into his back, driving him into the floor. Applejack simply stood there in front of him, unphased of what was happening around her. Pictures hanging on the wall fell off, cracks replacing them as they grew. Dishes and glasses on the table were shaken off and crashed to the floor, cracks appearing around the broken fragments. “I’ll get you for this!” Cres shouted through his pain, struggling to get out from under the chunk of ceiling. The mare just looked at the Absol, an eerie, unsettlingly pleased smile on her face as she walked backwards a few feet. “Cres!” Matt’s voice suddenly called out as he rushed over to the Absol, Roxanne at his side. Both of them got down to help him escape, but as they did so a familiar cracking of wood filled the Absol’s ear. Right before his eyes the floor crumbled beneath the two and they fell through, screaming. Cres let out a wail of panic and started thrashing in an attempt to escape his imprisonment before he looked down the new hole in the floor. It was strangely... empty. It was a pit of blackness. The Absol’s eyes widened and then a low, angry snarl left his lips. “Let. Me. Go,” he growled. A low chuckled rolled through the air, a hoof reaching out to pull the Absol’s head up and he found himself looking into Applejack’s grinning face, her now teal eyes staring down at him in amusement. “Sure thing, after all, don’t want them to get lonely now do we?” With that said, she lifted another hoof and slammed it on the remaining floor underneath Cres. The floor collapsed and Cres fell into the darkness, and as he fell he could see something rapidly approaching him. Below him amidst the rubble were the broken, beaten bodies of Matt, Roxanne, Belle and Xav. He also noticed that he was heading directly towards a large jagged piece of rebar. Cres’s jaw set and he closed his eyes. “BELLLEEEE! “ he screamed at the top of his lungs, thrashing violently in mid air. And then, he felt a painful jolt of pained and...electricity. His eyes snapped open, his chest heaving, his fur wild as he stared up into Belle’s eyes. “Oh thank Arceus that work,” she said in a relieved sigh as she nuzzle him worryingly. “...” Cres just wrapped his forepaws around her and pushed his face into her neck as his body shuddered. “I was beginning to worried... you were rolling around and growling angrily in your sleep,” Belle said softly. “I tried to wake you up multiple times before your body just went... wild in moving about. You were tossing and turning, your claws were even out as you growled louder and started to whimper out something. I was so worried that I used thunderbolt to wake you out of it.” Cres blinked and buried his face in further in her neck, still shivering and shuddering. “Than-thank you,” he whispered out, making sure to keep his blade away from her face. “... what happened?” Roxanne’s sleepy voice asked in the background. “Did someone shoot off a Thunderbolt?” “Yeah, Belle used it to wake Cres up for some reason,” Matt replied, equally as sleepy as he let out a long sigh. “... whoever brought Applejack here just assaulted me,” Cres said, finally managing to pull his head out of Belle’s neck. His jaw hardened. “He... he killed you... and I’m going too... oh when I find him I’m going to...” A low ferocious growl left Cres’ throat. Belle blinked as she frowned slightly. “Assaulted you? How so?” “He...” Cres growled. “He used what I think must have been a form of ‘Dream Eater’ on me... I don’t know exactly... he gave me a nightmare and it was like... it was like what those ghosts did to us... but worse... more real except for a detail or two...” Belle was silent for a moment before a harsh growl left her throat, closer to that of a Mightyena or a Houndoom then an Absol. “I see.” Was all she said, her jaw locked into a hard line before she leaned down and nuzzled Cres. “Then I’ll simply have to find a way to prevent that from happening again.” She was so simple and matter of fact about, not a hint of malice in her voice. Instead she sounded completely calm and orderly. Cres looked at her and saw the stony look in her eye and almost shivered. He knew that look, it was the look that she reserved for those that well and truly infuriated her. “I know you will,” Cres said softly, leaning up to lick her cheek. “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” Applejack’s scream pierced through the air.