“I don’t know how this sort of thing is physically possible,” Roxanne murmured to Matt as she leaned against the fridge, her eyes closed, hands on her stomach. “If it’s a Pokemon doing this then it should have to be somewhere nearby but it’s not.” Her black hair was wet from an early morning shower and her swelling belly was hidden beneath a black bathrobe.
“Indeed, I don’t know what kind of Pokemon has that sort of ability,” Matt said, his blonde hair combed back. He sat in a chair next to the kitchen table, sipping some coffee. “Not only that but to affect both Cres and Applejack at the same time... it concerns me we might be dealing with an unknown Pokemon.” His green eyes glance up to his wife. “And I don’t mean Unown.”
“I was aware,” she said, frowning as she opened her eyes. “I need to do more research on this...” her fingers began to tap on the fridge before her eyes hardened. “Whoever this is isn’t hurting us.” It was a bold statement and Matt could see her inner fire rising. “I’m a professor, dammit.”
“Well then I wish you the best of luck,” Matt said taking one more sip of his coffee before rubbing the back of his hand over his lips. He reached over to grab the crutches rest against the table and stood up. “I need to head to my Gym before my first challenger comes in.” He moved over to her and gave a light kiss on her cheek. “Take care.”
“Oh I will,” she said, kissing him back as she pushed herself away from the fridge, moving into the family room and sitting down on the couch, pulling out her laptop from where it had been sitting on a side table. In the back of Roxanne’s mind she noticed Applejack, who was still curled up in a shivering little ball, but ignored her, she had research to do. “Belle, come here and help me scan,” she called.
As the red Absol approached Roxanne, Matt hobbled out of the kitchen and looked at the shivering mare. He felt guilty for not being able to help her out, or at least talk to her to try to ease things down. It made him feel a bit... useless at the moment. Thankfully at least he could see Applejack wouldn’t fully be alone. He adjusted his gaze over to the chair to see Ohm resting on it, fully awake with his eyes resting upon the mare.
The man nodded his head in approval before heading for the door, surprised to see Cres waiting for him. “Coming with me to the Gym I guess?” he asked as he stood in front of the door, glancing down at the Absol.
“I need to clear my head, fighting will help that,” Cres said. He glanced up at Matt, his eyes narrowed ever so slightly. “And you need someone with you who can protect you.”
I think I have plenty of Pokemon to do that, Matt thought to himself but he just nodded his head. “Alright then, if you think you’re up to it I won’t stop ya.” The man reached out to turn the handle and opened the door, turning his head around over his shoulders to look at his wife typing away with her laptop. “I’ll see you tonight,” he told her, receiving no reply on his way out.
The door closed with a solid click and Matt stood in front of the door for a moment before letting out a single sigh. Arceus, help us figure this out. He whispered in his mind before returning his hand to his crutches and starting to make his way down the hallway, Cres padding along beside him, the Absol’s eyes ever on high alert.
Meanwhile, Roxanne continued her search for information, finally starting to dig up something relevant. Instead of searching for Pokemon who could cause advanced nightmares, she searched for more of reports of people and/or Pokemon having severe trauma associated with those nightmares. The results were... staggering.
“... Belle, please tell me I’m not reading these reports right,” Roxanne said quietly after the seventh report.
A crippled man had died screaming in his sleep. An elderly Pokemon had befallen the same fate. Several members of an entire family had suffered equally, all expiring on the same night. And more and more reports of similar incidents, spanning from weeks, months, or even years ago sprung up.
Belle shook her head as she was leaning against Roxanne’s side. “I’m afraid not...” she replied in a somber tone before glancing over at Applejack worriedly. “This... is a problem....” Ohm’s ears flickered slightly as he picked up her words and she could see the Luxray’s eyes ever so slightly shifting over to her.
Roxanne just put a hand behind her head and scratched as she continued reading. Not all of them could be the same Pokemon, there were obviously outliers. It spanned too many regions and to pin everything on one single Pokemon, not to mention that there had always been Pokemon with the ability to enter dreams. She closed her eyes and leaned back against the couch, mind trying to think of a way to narrow her search.
Belle’s mind was also whirling away at a thought. There must be a way to prevent this... after all, it’s not like preventing Nightmares was a new idea. Psychic types were known to do that and... that’s it! “Psychic types!”
“Hmm? What is it dear?” Roxanne asked, glancing down at Belle, quickly grabbing a pen and a piece of paper for Belle to write with.
The Absol quickly grabbed the pencil with her mouth and began to hastily, but carefully write on the piece of paper. ‘Go search for reports of people preventing these type of nightmares with Psychic Pokemon,’ she wrote down in a nearly flawless script.
Roxanne was quiet for a moment before she smiled, leaning down to kiss Belle on the top of her red furred head. “A good idea my little Belle,” she said before she turned back to the computer and began to type rapidly.
In doing so she quickly came to a conclusion. There were two types of cases. Those that had gone ‘undiagnosed’ for too long, and those which had been caught and saved.
Young girl saved from death by mother’s Alakazam.
Mary Alison was suffering from extreme nightmares, leaving her barely capable of functioning the next day. The nightmares became so severe that her mother became worried for the girl’s life. That night the mother brought her Alakazam to watch over her sleeping daughter and Mrs. Alison reported that whatever it was that had been tormenting her daughter in her sleep had retreated after being bested.
Roxanne frowned faintly as that and glanced down at Belle. “Hmm, this gives me an idea,” she murmured to herself. “I wonder how effective Xemnas would be at this, he’s rather powerful...” She smiled. “And he’d give us all the ability to talk to each other and that’s always nice hmm?”
Belle nodded her head. “Indeed... though that means we need to take Applejack to the lab,” she said, pointing a paw at the mare before gesturing it to the door. “I doubt Xemnas will fit inside the apartment.”
“I know we need to move her sweety,” Roxanne said, shaking her head. “Xemnas is heavy enough to break the floor.” The woman then leaned over and gently put a hand on Applejack’s back. The mare’s back shivered at the touch and reactively moved away from the woman’s hand. “Applejack, we need to go somewhere else where someone can help you.”
The mare didn’t respond, or at least not to Roxanne’s statement. “I didn’t mean to do it... I didn’t mean to do it... I didn’t mean to do it...” she whimpered out so softly, curling up even tighter into the corner of the couch.
The woman frowned deeply and glanced down at Belle. “I don’t know if I can move her like this...”
Right as she said that Ohm got up from his spot on the chair and moved over to the couch. He props himself onto the edge of the couch. He leaned his head over to grab Applejack gently with his mouth and dragged her off and onto his back. The mare didn’t resist in the slightest, and surprisingly went limp across his back.
“Ah, thank you Ohm,” Roxanne said with a smile as she got to her feet, patting the Luxray on the head for a moment with a smile before she kissed him on the forehead. “Such a sweet cat. I’ll be with you in just a moment, I need to change.” With that, she got up and went into the bedroom.
“I don’t like the way this is going for either Applejack or-” Belle sucked in a breath. “Or for Cres.” She glanced at the limp, whimpering mare on Ohm’s back, worry in her eyes.
“Then we must find a way to prevent this from ever happening again,” Ohm replied, his voice calm yet very firm, his eyes holding a determined glint in them. “This battle isn’t over.”
“Not by a long shot,” Belle said, her voice firm. “I’ve already lost him once, it won’t happen again.”
“And I will not let her come to harm once more,” Ohm said, causing Belle to raise her eyebrow at him.
Roxanne came out of the bedroom wearing her labcoat and pants. To the Pokemon’s surprise she was carrying a short black blanket which she threw around Applejack’s body, obscuring her from the world. She then got down on one knee, leaning beneath the Luxray and quickly tying the ends off. The woman then straightened, letting out a sigh and shaking her head.
“I hate being pregnant,” she muttered before glancing down at Ohm and scratching at his ears. “You okay to walk like that Ohm?” The Luxray simply nodded his head in response. “Good, let’s get a move on then, we need to get things set up.” She slapped Ohm gently on the side and started for the door, Belle at her side and Ohm on her other.
Dirt filled Cres’s vision, a great cloud of it swirling around the Absol. The whole stadium was obscured as the opponent bounced off of the boulders, the floor, everything in sight, blowing up a plume of dust. Cres grit his teeth as the Donphan’s speed seemed to increase again and he barely managed to leap to the side in time to avoid the rocketing ball of armored hide. The Donphan slammed into one of the boulders and pulverized it with bone crushing strength.
Ordinarily, Cres lived for high level matches but today was different, he felt slow and weary.
“You’re doing fine Cres!” Matt shouted from his spot on the south side of the gym. “Keep dodging his attacks and look for the perfect time to strike!”
Cres only distantly heard the encouragement but nodded his head, narrowing his eyes and leaping away just in time to avoid being slammed into from above. He hated Rollout.
“JUST STOP ALREADY!” he roared, the dirt ripping at his fur as the Donphan cruised past him again, shattering another boulder.
“Mhahahah,” the Donphan chuckled deeply as it unfurled and landed on his feets. “What’s the matter? Can’t take the heat?”
Instead of replying, Cres gritted his teeth and growled lowly. His legs bent and then suddenly launched him at the Donphan, blade glowing.
“Donphan, use Horn Attack!” the male, a man wearing glasses with a brown coat and matching hat ordered the Pokemon.
The Donphan smiled as his tusks glowed and he charged the Absol, ready to smack the smaller Pokemon down with ease. Cres however was much more agile and he evaded the pair of gleaming tusks, moving to the side at the last moment and bringing his blade scouring along the Donphan’s side, a bit of blood leaking from the new, shallow cut. Cres leapt away before a retaliatory blow could be struck and his red eyes narrowed as a droplet of blood stained his white coat.
“Not so fast when you’re not rolling are you?” he asked with a smirk.
The Donphan glared down at Cres, his feet prodding at the ground in frustration. “Hah! You think a scratch like that is going to take me down! You’re going to need to do better than that you oversized Skitty!”
“A true fighter would have attacked by now,” Cres said.
“Donphan use Take Down!” the male trainer shouted, and with that the elephant like Pokemon charged at Cres with blazing speed, head held down to ram into the Absol’s whole body.
“Cres dodge and use Night Slash again on his back!” Matt ordered.
Cres’s knees bunched again and he sprang into the air, coming down on the Donphan’s back as it closed with him, his blade slashing down into the Donphan’s back in another spray of blood. The Donphan let out a trumpet of pain as it continued on with it’s Take Down attack and rammed right into a bolder, cracking it apart in three sections. Cres leapt off of the rolling elephant and landed a few feet away, his white fur even more red than before.
Ordinarily that would have been enough, but in a high level match both combatants continued until they were incapable of it.
“It’s not over yet! Donphan use Magnitude and give it all you got!” the male trainer shouted out dramatically. The Donphan shook itself, still bleeding from the back wound and turned to Cres with a determined look. It raised its forelegs high in the air before slamming them down.
The ground shook, gently at first and becoming steadily more violent. The whole gym building was shaking back and forth, some cracks forming on the ground. Matt braced himself on his crutches and he let out a yelp of surprise. Cres’s eyes narrowed and he let out a blood curdling snarl as images from the night before filled his mind. Suddenly he wasn’t in the gym anymore, he was back in the apartment and it was Applejack rearing before him, ready to bring down the house on everyone he loved.
“YOU DARE!” the red and white Absol shrieked, launching himself forwards over the shaking ground, long days of training with Nok guiding his paws. He reached the Donphan as it raised its feet in the air to attack again, his blade glowing darkly.
The headblade dug deeply into the Donphan’s neck and blood sprayed as Cres finished the motion, pulling the blade out with another wash of blood, his vision black with rage. His heart beat hard against his chest and his paws distantly felt the quickly forming pool as his mind began to slow.
A breath was caught in his chest and suddenly everything was spinning. He heard shouting in the back of his mind but it was distant and somehow removed from him as familiar evil laughter rolled through his head.
Then suddenly he was gone, wrapped in the red glow of his Pokeball and back in the darkness.
Matt held the Ultra Ball in his hand, looking at it in complete shock and disbelief. “What the hell just happened,” he whispered at it before his mind returned to the ‘now’ to the Donphan and its trainer.
The Donphan was grunting weakly as it tried to return to its feet and the trainer had run forwards, a dozen bandages and a potion in either hand. “Donny!” he shouted, grabbing the Donphan to steady the heavily bleeding Pokemon before bringing the potion up and spraying at the cut with bloody hands. The elephant let out a low groan and leaned against the trainer as its neck wound began to seal itself as bandages were pressed against it.
“What the hell was that?!” the trainer shouted over to Matt as he helped his Pokemon.
“I... don’t know what got into him,” Matt said before shaking his head and glancing over to his reserve Pokemon. “Xerox, call the the PokeCenter, now!” he ordered the Zoroark who firmly nodded his head and ran off.
“If Donny dies because of this I’m going to...” the trainer fixed Matt with a deep glare, his breaths coming in and out rapidly as he finally managed to completely staunch the bleeding. “I’m going to...”
“Don’t think about it now, just keep pressure on the wound,” Matt said, cutting the young trainer off. He hastily moved his way his way over to them. “Eclair, bring me the emergency first aid kit,” he ordered as he carefully knelt down next to the Donphan.
The rest passed in a blur, the ambulance arrived and then departed taking the Donphan and the trainer away leaving Matt standing there at the door with Cres’ Ultra ball in his hand. Through it all, one thought remained heavy in his mind. What were you thinking Cres?