Chapter 17
Detect
Day 3
“Inti, I got a quick question for you.” X asked. He sat on the edge of The Pit, his legs dangling over the edge as he beheld the spectacle that was supposed to be a battle. Currently Apocalypse's foe, a simple Durant, was running for his life as fast as his tiny legs could carry him as the significantly larger Tyrantrum that was now Apocalypse chased him at a leisurely pace.
Inti, currently resting on Azisa’s head faced her trainer. “What’s up X?”
“Exactly how did Apocalypse evolve?”
“Well, it’s nothing major…”
earlier that day
Nall shouted what everyone was thinking.
“GUYS, THERE'S A EVIL MONSTER THAT SUDDENLY APPEARED OUT OF NOWHERE!”’
It was true. An evil monster that looked like a humorously disjointed octopus mixed with a tiger roared as it destroyed lamp posts, plants, and caused general destruction.
Nalel was galloping in circles, panicked and screaming “WE ARE GOING TO DIE!”
“Never fear I am here!” came a cry. Rushing towards the foe was the magnificent, sexy, totally awesome and never wrong Inti, the Storming Thunder Breaker (copyright). With a battle cry Inti launched herself into the air with the intent to cause serious harm to the incredibly strange creature.
To Inti’s surprise the creature smacked her away, launching her into a conveniently placed lamppost.
The lamppost them promptly fell over, having been separated from it’s base at Inti’s point of impact. “Totally meant to do that.”
The monster suddenly sent three of it’s slimy tentacles to slam into Inti, sending her flying into another lamppost.
“OH NO!” Nalel shouted, this time being the one who said what everyone was thinking. “OUR GREAT DEFENDER, INTI THE STORMING THUNDER BREAKER WAS DEFEATED IN BATTLE! WHO WILL SAVE US FROM THE MONSTER!?”
‘“I WILL SAVE YOU!” shouted a voice from above. All heads turned up to gaze in the sky and behold the owner of the voice, their fearful hearts suddenly casting away their fear and replacing it with joy and amazement.
Up in the sky flew a magnificent eagle Pokemon, red feathers with blue underneath with white feathers serving as plumage in the shape of a war bonnet. And in his claws a very familiar Rock Dragon.
Nall and Nalel did a happy dance, speaking in unison “OUR HERO APOCALYPSE IS HERE!”
“That is right! I, Apocalypse the Alien, has come from a far away world to rid this one of evil and fill it with joy and love and all the other stuff that isn’t violent! For fear me, and fear me well for when I am done with you, you are the one who is going to be canceled!”
The Braviary simply rolled his eyes as he flapped his wings, each flap exerting more effort that needed. “Dude, can I let you down now? You weigh like a pregnant ton of bricks.”
“Bricks can get pregnant!?”
“....happy landing.”
And with that Braviary let go and flew over the monster before letting go, giving gravity the go ahead to send Apocalypse directly down. Apocalypse flailed his arms and went “WHEEEEE!” in joy as he fell to the ground like a Draco Meteor and slammed into the Octotiger before the nightmarish creature could dodge.
Wasting no time, Apocalypse got to his feet and started to do a happy dance. It was cut short when the Octotiger exploded into giblets and launched Apocalypse into the air, the child screaming as he somersaulted in the sky before landing head first into the dirt.
As he struggled to get his head out of the dirt, a task that was surprisingly difficult the pieces of the monster suddenly converged on one another and merged into a blob. Slowly the blog grew as more of itself combined. Then as soon as the blob could grow no more it quickly turned back into an octotiger with one major difference.
The octotiger was now much bigger, standing nearly twelve feet tall.
“OH NO!” shouted Nall and Nalel, pointing at the monster in terror. “THE MONSTER IS NOW AN EVEN BIGGER MONSTER!’
“Will you two stop doing that!?”
Apocalypse finally got his head out of the dirt, turning around to face the gigantic Octotiger, ignoring the Braviary’s demand. “Wow. You’re big.” Apocalypse declared.
“YES APOCALYPSE! YES IT IS!” Nalel shouted, causing the Braviary overhead to gag. “WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO NOW?”
A toothy grin was his answer. “Simple! I’ma evolve now!”
And just like that Apocalypse evolved into Tyrantrum. The octotiger, and every bystander for that matter, was slack jawed in confusion, thus giving Apocalypse the perfect opportunity to give the Octotiger the smack down.
Said smack down taking the form of a Head Charge to the face, a blow that launched the monster away with enough force to lift him off the ground completely.
As it flew away it spontaneously exploded. Again.
“AND THAT IS WHY NO ONE CAN CANCEL ME!”
Everyone eyed the Heliolisk, Inti shrugging in indifference. “What?”
“Really Inti? Really?”
“It’s true!” Inti scoffed. “Don’t you trust me X?”
“Forgive me for being a little….skeptical.” sighed her trainer. “I mean, a random monster just appears out of nowhere? Color me confused.”
“It totally appeared. Trust me.”
“Right, so where is this monster Inti?” Naruto asked. He received another scoff from Inti, as if the question was already answered.
“I told you already. It exploded.”
This time Azisa was the skeptical one. “Inti, forgive me for being that girl, but that seems…. to be extremely unlikely.”
“It’s an evil monster.” Inti countered. “You know how fragile they are. They practically explode once they hit the dirt.”
Groaning, X eyed his Heliolisk with a stern stare, one that caused Inti to twitch by reflex. “Inti, you can’t honestly expect us to believe that something survived it’s own explosion. Twice.”
“Says the guy who went from human to Chesnaught overnight?” Inti taunted. X glared again, prompting Inti to behave. "Don't Geodude explode and survive all the time?"
"Inti..."
"Fine...here’s what really happened.”
What really happened
Inti tried her hardest to resist finding the nearest bar and drinking herself into a coma (which was amazingly easy yet impossible for her to do at the same time, judging by past experience) at what she was watching.“What the hell did I walk into?”
“Uh….science?” Nall grinned.
Said science was an incredibly tall, and rickety tower that surrounded Apocalypse. Spiraling up the tower was a very large something covered with a tarp followed by a collection of mirrors - each one getting larger and larger as they climbed the tower, before ending with one that was roughly the size of four Inti's standing on top of the other. “Sister, I know what science looks like, and this seems more like a funeral.”
“Isn’t that was science is for someones psyche?” The sisters then hoof bumped, ignorant of the sound of gritting teeth behind them.
“Okay, seriously, what are you two doing?”
“Well Apocalypse said that he likes the sunlight, and that he gets stronger from it.” Nalel explained. “So we figured that we’d give him a ton of sunlight at once so he’d get really really powerful!”
“It’s brilliant right!?”
“This is never going to work.”Inti groaned.
“NOW SISTER!” Nalel shouted with much enthusiasm. Nall flew towards the top of the tower, and threw the tarp off revealing a very large lens. As the dawn broke over the jungle, the light filtered into the lens and collated into a single beam, bouncing down the stair of mirrors and gathering power as it...
“Stop. Stop stop stop stop.” X groaned. His hand immediately went to his face and gripped it in response to the coming headache. “Inti, that sounds less believable that that.....what did you call it again?”
“Octotiger?”
“Yea, that.”
“You must admit it is something Apocalypse would try.”
X nodded in agreement “That’s true. How bout trying again, the real story this time?”
“Fine, fine, I’ll talk.” Inti jumped down Azisa as soon as she finished, leaving the Ghost Pokemon’s head and landing on the ground. “But you guys have no idea how hungry I am. I’m gonna find some grub and then I’ll tell ya. I’d look through Azisa, but I already did and she’s not quite ripe yet.”
And that Inti faded into the crowd. “So…” Naruto asked his brother as Apocalypse begun to battle his next opponent in what could only be described as impossibly one sided. “How crazy is the next tale going to be?”
“Honestly, I’m expecting it to include a gang of Gogoats riding motorcycles.” Naruto dully rolled his eyes as he said that. “You think she’s hiding something, don’t you?.”
“Probably.” X answered. “But I don’t want to push it. She’ll tell us when she’s ready. The last few days have been pretty rough for everyone, so she needs her space.”
“Truer words have never been spoken.”
Unnoticed by her new friends, a young changeling mere melded into the crowd.
Inti didn’t get far before turning around to see the changeling tailing her. “Hey Nell.”
“Hi Inti.” Nell replied. “So, about what happened with Apocalypse?”
“It was a time for the ages I’ll tell you that, one that…”
“...probably didn’t happen.”
Inti was a little shocked. “I’m surprised you noticed instead of Naruto. That guy is addicted to information, so he’s not easy to fool.”
“Maybe because I don’t live with you?” offered Nell. “What you said didn’t sound normal to me because I don’t live with you, so I don’t know what’s normal to you.”
Inti laughed as she approached Nell, eyeing her intensely. “You are a smart one.“
“You think so?”
“Yea, and so do they.”
Nell wasn’t sure what she meant by that until Inti pointed behind her. Approaching the lizard and the changeling was Nall and Nalel, the broodsisters darting over the crowd before landing near their sister.
They immediately went into a hug. “Hi dearest sister of ours!”
“Nall, Nalel, may I ask…”
“We’re hungry too.”
Nell’s ears dropped at that, the simple answer suddenly clear to her. “Oh. That.”
“And we wanted to see how Frilly….how Inti was doing.” Nall finished. “Last night was a rough one for all of us.”
“So, Inti, what really did happen?” Nell asked. Inti suddenly got a little tense, alongside her sisters. “I’m a little curious.”
Inti turned around and halted the procession. “Look, I’m gonna be straight here.” she explained. “What happened to cause Apocalypse to evolve involves me being...well me, and your sisters being...well...”
“Cute and adorable?” The two coursed together.
“Yea, lets go with that.” Inti answered. “As I was saying, this...opens a few scars.”
Nell caught on immediately. “Bad blood with something that happened to you before?”
“Not all ghosts are Pokemon.”
It didn’t take long for Nell to put a hoof over Inti’s shoulders. “If you don’t want to, you can always talk about it later.” Nall and Nalel joined the hug, and Nell continued. “I can tell that it’s going to hurt talking about it. But you can’t heal if you never let the scars that caused the pain heal. I’m not you. I’m me. So, maybe talking will work for you, maybe it won’t. But it’s a lot better than just thinking about it, right?”
“You’re optimistic, aren’t you?” Inti smiled. “You don’t even know me and you really do want help even thought I am real bitch.”
“Well, of course I do. Dad did say you’re part of our family. Even if you are a bitch.”
Inti just laughed. “That makes me feel better at least. Okay, the real story this time. Though it doesn't actually start with me. It starts with your sisters…”
What really happened
The Truth
“It’s been hours!”
Nalel rolled her eyes, silently complaining about Nall filling the last fifteen minutes with nothing but whining and moaning. The sounds echoed through the park they walked through, the location of said park on the other end of town far from their home. “I know Nall but we gotta keep looking.”
“I’m hungry!”
“I know Nall.”
“I’m tired!”
“I know Nall.”
“I’m hungry and tired! Can’t we take a break, like only for a min..”
“I FREAKING KNOW NALL!”
Nall took a step back, fearful of her suddenly shouting sister. “Hey, don’t yell at me.”
“NALL, YOU’VE BEEN GRIPING ABOUT BEING HUNGRY AND TIRED AND I’M GETTING SICK OF IT!” seethed Nalel.
“But I’m tired! We’ve been looking hours!”
"I KNOW NALL. I WAS THERE.” the scream countered. Nalel seethed in anger, butting heads “I’M HUNGRY, AND TIRED LIKE YOU, BUT I’M NOT MOANING AND GROANING ABOUT IT BECAUSE IF I DO THAT THEN I DON'T FIND APOCALYPSE!”
“So lets take a break! We can find him in tomorrow morning!”
“IT IS TOMORROW MORNING!”
“I MEANT TOMORROW TOMORROW MORNING!”
“IT WON’T MATTER THEN, BECAUSE WE MIGHT NOT HAVE A HOME TOMORROW TOMORR..”
A rock suddenly flew from out of her line of sight and directly into the head of Nalel. It wasn’t a very big rock, more like a pebble, but it was still a rock no matter how large it was and getting hit by it in any case was mildly annoying. The mare faced the direction of the throw and saw a group of rocks of a dusty brown color sitting near the center of the where the duo stood. Oddly one of smaller rocks
"WHO THREW THAT!" shouted the angry Nalel, flashes of mana flashing bight with anger. She scanned the area devoid of life other than her sister and her self, trying to find who threw the rock.
Her eyes landed on a pile of rocks slate gray in color, save for one that was a brown color. And for some reason had a tail waving gently back and forth...
"WHY DID YOU STOP YELLING AT ME!?"
"BECAUSE SOMEONE THREW A ROCK AT ME!"
"WHY AM I YELLING?
"I REALLY DON'T KNO..."
The brown rock turned, revealing a face gripping a pebble in his mouth. He threw it, spitting it out like a spitball, hitting Nall square in the face. "Can you please keep it down? I wanna pout in silence."
Anger turned to joy as the two changelings raced to hug Apocalypse. "APOCALYPSE! We found you!"
"Yay?" was the sheepish reply. "Can you unfind me though? I wanna be left alone."
The three sat on the rocks, Nall and Nalel not wanting to leave Apocalypse alone.
Apocalypse nodded, the motions slow and dreary, reflecting a sour mood. "Yea. Since I kinda am a rock, I thought that hiding with real rocks would make it hard for Inti to find me."
"You're not wrong about that." Nall laughed, Nalel joining her in her merriment as Apocalypse gave them a look of confusion. "I pretty sure we walked by this very spot a few times before finding you."
"So...did I do good?”
“Course you did!” Nall laughed before giving the dinosaur a playful noogie. “I mean, you look like a rock. Kinda hard to find you when you hide in a place that looks like you right?”
“I….guess it is kinda smart!” He gave the two a happy -thought very toothy - grin before asking. “So did I do good?”
“Yes Apocalypse. You did good.”
“YAY!” The Pokemon shouted before going into a little happy dance. “I did good! I did good!”
As he danced, Nalel leaned to her sister and whispered. “Sounds like he has issues.”
“Oh let him have his fun before we take him back.” countered Nall.
That stopped the happy dance in it’s tracks. “What?”
"Well,” Nall felt a Little uncomfortable addressing her plan, as she suddenly felt a chill up her spine. She ignored it, and continued. “We should take you back to were your family is."
“But..that means I have to so see Inti!”
“That’s a problem?”
"Of course it’s a problem!" pouted Apocalypse. "Inti will be there and Inti hates me."
"Oh come on. Frilly Face isn't that bad, right?" Nalel offered. Apocalypse grunted in disagreement.
"Inti is why I ran off today! Inti kept being mean to me. When we went to train with the nice soldier people she kept making fun of me, and making me do the hard things, and would laugh at me when I would mess up!"
“But she’s always doing that!” Tears welled in his eyes for but a moment before bursting into a river of tears. "Inti's always picking on me! Ever since I hatched Inti was, was, was, always always mean to me and no one will tell me why!
“But...didn’t you tell anyone else?” Apocalypse looked at Nalel, the tears in his eyes rushing down his face. “X and Naruto seem like pretty nice guys. I don’t think that they would ever let her keep doing it.”
“But she did! I would tell X and Naruto and Azisa, but she would keep doing it! And I am sick of it! I don't wanna see her ever ever again ever!" He slammed his butt into the ground, defiantly with the force of a falling tree. “And I don’t know why she keeps doing it because no one will tell me and it makes me sad and angry and even more sad and even more angry! Why is she so mean to me!?”
The two sisters looked at each other, frowning. They were sisters, a bond that could never be undone. But here was Apocalypse, the small dinosaur crying because a member of his own family was able to pick on him and get away with it.
It was a tough pill to swallow, as the emotions that ran hot within Apocalypse poured out of hi and into Nall and Nalel, the two unwittingly feeding. And they truly felt how Apocalypse felt.
Helplessness.
Anger.
Sadness.
Loneliness.
Confusion.
It was combined into a sicking buffet of bottled up emotions that finally caused the damn to break. It opened Nall and Nalel’s eyes. “...Apocalypse...” the two spoke in unison.
“Can...can I go now?”
“Apocalypse, you know people love you right?” Nall shot out like a rocket and hugged the Rock Dragon, ending the tears.
“....no.”
Nalel laughed as she joined the hug. “X loves you, Naruto loves you, hell we love you.” she spoke softly. “Inti...well we’re not sure about here…”
“No kidding.”
“But while Inti may not care, we do. And if Inti tries to do something to you again, then we’ll be there for you.” Nall continued. “And we’ll get her to stop being a big jerk.”
“But, what if it doesn’t work?”
“Then we try again! We keep trying until it works!” Nalel shouted to the heavens. “It doesn’t matter as long as we don’t want her to win! Maybe if we do something, she’ll change her mind and do something nice. “
“And if that doesn't work we can adopt you!” Nall smiled.
Apocalypse smiled. “Thanks. I’m ready to go now.”
--
The new home Shadowfox had found themselves was by Changeling standards a small city. But by the standards of human, Pokemon, pony, and several other species the city was anything but small.
The trip back to the house was uneventful aside from Apocalypse acting like his happy go lucky self, running circle under the currently flying Nall. “So, Apocalypse, we know you’re from another world. What was it like?”
“It was like this one!” Apocalypse grinned. “Only with more humans!” Nall laughed as Apocalypse said that, confusing the pokemon. "...what did I say?"
"You're really adorable, you know that APoclaysep?" she laughed. Apoclaypse blushed, grinning wide in responce to the praise he was being given.
"Aw thanks. It's a lot better than what Inti usually says."
On cue, Inti was walked into view, glaring at Apocalypse. "You're right about that."
With that, Apocalypse's good mood disappeared. "Go away Inti."
“Do you realize,” Inti asked, ignoring Apocalypse's request, “how freaking long it took me to find you?”
“No, and I don’t care.”
“Well I care. And trust me, I am not a happy Inti.”
“Well,” Apocalypse glared at Inti, growling the best he could, trying to look intimidating (it wasn’t working much to his dismay). “I’m not a very happy Apocalypse! I mean, I was but then you showed up."
“What else is new?” She scoffed, looking at Apocalypse with almost a bored expression. Suddenly he lunged at her, trying to bite her.
Repeatedly.
For Inti’s sake it was a good thing she was able to dodge each one. “Stand still!”
“Why do I want to that?” snapped Inti.
“So I can bite you!”
“I don’t want that to happen!
“Yea, but I want it to!”
The frantic struggle between Apocalypse trying (and failing) to bite Inti lasted for a minute, and it was clearly in Init’s favor. With a defiant shout, Apocalypse charged at Inti, trying to take her out in a single bite. Inti in turn crackled with electricity's, and aimed for the gaping maw. “Eat Thunder Apocalypse!”
Apocalypse ate thunder.
Apocalypse then decided that thunder was something no one should ever eat, at it hurt. A lot.
He screamed as the lighting struck the inside of his mouth, and he dropped down in pain. “WHY ARE YOU ALWAYS SO MEAN TO ME?!”
“Hey you attacked me first!”
“NA-UH! YOU ATTACKED ME FIRST!”
“Does it even matter?”
“OF COURSE IT MATTERS BECAUSE YOU’RE ALWAYS MEAN TO ME!”
“You’re right. I am mean to you. And you wanna know why?? It’
s because I’m a mean Pokemon! Maybe, just maybe if you stopped acting like brat and maned up then maybe you would stop bitching all the time! Do you have any idea how annoying you are? You drive us all nuts!”
“So….does that mean you don’t like me!”
“ISN’T IT OBVIOUS!?
“FINE!!”
“Fine!”
“FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!” And in a huff of anger and tears, Apocalypse ran off into the night.
All Nall and Nalel could do,shocked by the Heliolisk. "That....that...that wasn't very nice!"
"News flash sister: I'M NOT A VERY NICE POKEMON!" Inti shouted. "AND YOU TWO MAKE ME ACT EXTRA NOT NICE BECAUSE YOU'RE A BUNCH OF BRAIN DEAD MORONS! "
Nall’s name flashed red as she grit her teeth, seething in anger. "What is with you!?” she shouted. “Why are such a...a…”
“Go ahead. Say it. I dare you.”
“Okay, fine, I WILL? WHY ARE YOU SUCH A BITCH!?”
"You wanna know? It's because I hate you!" Inti rammed into Nall's face, burrowing as far as the lizard could. "I hate you because you represent everything I despise! You have a nice home and you act like two hipsters who just expect everything to just magically end up all fine and dandy! Well I got a heads up for you, there is a very real chance that me and your heroes are going to loose tomorrow, and this entire city is going to be the Durant's backyard! But you don't seem to get that! You're naive, and short sighted, and you can't even begin to understand what it's like to go through a crisis, because the way you're handling this one is grade A moronic! Trust me on this one because when it's time for the universe to come bite you in the ass and bite you hard, you are going to break and never be able to fix yourselves!"
"O. I get it. We're dumb. So why are you taking it out on Apocalypse."
"Why not?"
"Apocalypse says you're always mean to him,” Nalel glared at Inti, and for the first time since meeting her, Inti could almost say she was being intimidated by the goofy changeling. “So I wonder why he sticks around you if he doesn't like you. I doubt he’s being forced to stay against his will.”
Inti was about to retort, but found she couldn't. The words on her lips turned to ash, and were crushed under the glare. She said not a word before leaving.
And as she left, a single tear ran down her face.
Nalel simply watched Inti race away into the darkness of the streets until she left her sight. She slumped to the ground, exhaustion overwhelming her. “That took a lot out of me.”
Nall however wsa having none of this.“Come on sis! Up up up upppity up!” she chanted, taking toht eair to lift her sister up. “We have a job to do!”
“Forget it….Inti is a jerk and she knows where she lives.” Nalel moaned.
“No, not her, we gotta go after Apocalypse, again!” Nall shouted.
“He probably knows where we live too.”
“Do you honestly think he’s going to come back here when he knows this is where Inti is crashing too?”
Nalel gave a tired sigh, getting up and shaking off the small amount of dirt that was on her. “You’re right. Let’s go!”
--
Reality
Nell glared at Inti. “Really?” she asked. Thankfully, the group was able to find three Changelings, a Excegutor standing next to a large pile of mangos, passing them out to hungry changelings and Pokemon.
“Look, I’m not a very nice Pokemon.” Inti said thorugh bites of mango.
“I uh...kinda figured that out.” Nell answered. “So, what happened next?”
“Well, I went off to do my own thing. I was mad, needed to just get away from everyone. “ Inti explained. “Good thing too. I was looking for silence, but instead found someone who wanted to listen to little ol’ me.”
What really happened
The alleyway Inti had run off into was significantly more ruined when she had come across it. Trash cans, walls, the floor, random tuffs of grass growing out of the ground. Nothing escaped her anger. “Who the hell does she think she is?” growled Inti out loud, despite knowing only she could hear it. “She doesn’t now anything about us Pokemon. She doesn’t know anything about me. Why does she gotta act like she can fix me? No one can fix me.”
“May I ask why?”
Ignoring her, the two Psychics walked towards Inti and sat down next to her, one on each side. “Keeping it inside isn’t healthy you know. Trust me, I understand.”
“Who the hell are you anyway?”
“Sorry, I forgot to introduce myself.” The Alakazam held out her hand, waiting for Inti to take it. “I am Sabrina, Gym Leader of Saffron city. Well, former Gym Leader I suppose. And this is Alakazam.”
“A pleasure.” The other Alakazam nodded, his voice deep and filled with wisdom.
“Charmed. I’m Inti, from the city of piss off.”
“She is a feisty one, isn’t she?” A bolt of lightning shot out form Inti, and would have hit Alakazam had he not blinked out of existence via Teleport. He reappeared just as quickly as he disappeared, as if nothing had occurred. “My case has been made.”
“Seriously go away. Can’t I pout in peace?”
“I’m not sure that is the wisest path to take.” Sabrina pointed out the mess Inti had made. “You’re quite messy. And noisy.”
Inti grinned at that, her mood making a 180, going from pouty to proud. “Well, I am the Storming Thunder Breaker after all.”
--
“You carry a great weight on your mind.” Sabrina pointed out. It was not a question. It was spoken as one would state a fact. Those words caused Inti to stiffen, eyes flashing with anger.
“You read my mind didn’t you!”
Sabrina in turn shook her head.“No.” she explained. “That would be rude. Everyone is entitled to their secrets. Those with psychic powers need to respect privacy at all times, not just when it is convenient. You secrets are your own and your own. If you wish to reveal them, it is up to you, not me.”
“Suuuuuuure you aren’t.”
“Believe me. Do not believe me. That is your choice, not mine.”
“Physics.” huffed the storming thunder breaker. “You always gotta act so mysterious.”
“Stuff it.”
Sabrina sat down, inching towards Inti, whom in turn inched away from Sabrina to spite her.“Such anger is not good for you.”
“I can handle myself just fine.”
“Are you?” Sabrina eyed her acquaintance, the Pokemon doing her best to look away from the former gym leader. “Are you saying that because you believe it, or because you are trying to sound tough?” Inti said nothing, simply sitting and staring at a spot of grass growing alone in an ocean of dirt. “You remind me of myself actually.”
“Suuuuuure you did.”
“It was years ago. You may not know this, but humans with physic powers are rather rare.”
“Nope.” came the sarcastic reply. “I did not know that incredibly obvious fact.”
“You can probably understand how I felt when I was a young child.“ Sabrina look upwards towards the sky, the moon shining in the star scape. “I had a family that cared for me more than anything, but I pushed them away from me, in favor of training my power. And in my pursuit for control, I isolated myself from more than my family. I had no friends save Alakazam, thought he was the same as me: A physic.
I grew up a product of my constant training: a lonely woman who isolated everything from her for the sake of perfecting her craft.”
“Is there a point to this?” Inti grumbled. “Story time is nice, but usually when people rant about their back stories, there is usually a point to be made.”
“A rude one, isn’t she?”
Inti simply gave a death glare at Alakazam. It was not every effective. Sabrina continued, ignoring the quick glare battle. “My life was empty, and I longed for someone to be my friend. Yet while I longed for that, my mind had become two at that point, and half of me denied me that. And so it went, the status quo unchanging until I met a young trainer, one I had already defeated yet had not learned his lesson, and his friend of his from the nearby haunting grounds. A Haunter.” Inti noticed a sly smile, one that only a trained eye could catch int eh nick of time, and Sabrina “ I won’t bore you with the details, but the trainer brought he Haunter to battle, yet the Haunter chose to instead goof around. And he did the impossible.”
“He made soap operas interesting?”
“He made me laugh.” Inti rolled her eyes in response. “In that single moment, I was able to remember that I needed more in my life than just my control over my physic powers. I am pleased to say that my life got significantly better that day.”
Inti was not convinced. “Yay, a Happy ending. Not every story ends that way.”
“I am aware of that.” Sabrina reassured Inti. “But something told me that….maybe telling you my story would help you make a choice that could very well alter your future. That today is a day where you could either become what you want to be, or what everyone things you will be.”
“...I don’t get it.”
“There are two paths ahead of you Inti.” Sabrina gave Inti a caring gaze, and Inti was surprised to see a gentle fire in her eyes. But despite the gentle nature of that fire, Inti knew that fire was still fire, and the fire in Sabrina's eyes burned in a way that portrayed force of will, a conviction so to speak.
The force behind the fire was akin to being crushed by the entire weight of the ocean.
Immense.
Overbearing.
Unstoppable.
“You can either continue this path, and continue to be scared by the path you choice to walk down, and forever be haunted by the bad choices you made but did not have the courage to remedy, or you can take the road less traveled. The road taken by those who seek to make themselves a better person than they were yesterday, to admit that they hurt more than just themselves.”
“Okay, hold up. I do not have a problem.”
“The fact that we are still having this conversation is evident that there is one.”
“Yea, with you. Not me.”
“Inti, I do not know you, that much is certain, but kindred spirits converge with each other when they are needed to do so.” Sabrina got up, Alakazam doing the same. “You are free to do whatever you want, but time in not unlimited: Either you make the choice, or life will make it for you.”
In darkness, Apocalypse sat. He sighed as he tried not to think about Inti, but try as he might, the only thing he could think about was just that. “Why does she have to be so mean to me? I’m just a kid. Aren’t we supposed to be treated nicely?”
He looked up in the sky, the night aglow in the ancient beauty of the moon that hung int eh sky. Although he didn’t have a lot of time to explore this new world, Apocalypse could not deny how beautiful the sky was. It reminded him of the other sky back int the place that they could not return to.
Home.
“I miss home…” He sighed. His eyes then widened. “Hey wait a minute! Inti called me stupid yesterday! Grrrrrr, why does she always do this!?” His sighed, laying on the ground, all his energy expended. “Ever thing sucks…”
“You have no idea.”
Apocalypse turned around, and standing across from him was a blue maned Changeling. “Hey little guy, what’s the matter?”
“Someone I live with hates me and doesn’t like me.” Apocalypse pouted. “My life sucks…”
The changeling chuckled, and with a stomp of his hooves several more changelings appeared. Before Apocalypse could think of anything, the horde started to encircle him, and suddenly Apocalypse realized that he was not in a god place. “Trust me,” the lead gave an evil toothy grin as Apocalypse took a step backwards into a changeling. “You should save that way of thinking for after we’re done with you.”