Alola to a New World!

by Tapu Meme

Extra 3. I See Fire

The moon was high in the sky when the headaches of the hunters finally subsided enough to hold a prolonged conversation. Avior and Gon had completely recovered and could pace about freely, but neither Gerson nor the graveler could stand up without seeing stars. They were about to discuss what their next course of action would be, but the Salandit tribe had other plans.

“You lot better stay away from Gramma! You and your crystals could have killed her!” a lanky young salazzle scolded them all as healer salandit set another fire to keep Grandma Sala from getting too cold.

“I’m sorry.” Gon hung his head, looking so dejected that the salazzle’s heart melted. “I didn’t mean to hurt your grandma.”

“Well, in any case, you’d better keep those crystals away from her. And if you want to bring any more weird characters up here, you’d better ask permission from a sentry. That goes especially for you two pruney excuses for dragons!”

Gon snorted out loud at that, but neither Gerson nor Avior seemed at all offended.

“We promise!” Gon said with a salute. Satisfied, the salazzle turned and left.

As soon as she was out of earshot, Gon’s face split into a cheeky grin. He made a face at the salazzle’s retreating back, then hid behind the graveler when she turned around.

“Thought she’d never leave us alone.” Gerson chuckled. “If only she knew, huh?”

“Yeah,” Gon agreed, plopping down on the floor. “Those flares were pretty annoying for us, too.”

Avior suddenly growled, lashing her tail across the ground and carving deep furrows into the rock. The graveler flinched and scooted away. Gon didn't run, but he eyed the lashing tail suspiciously.

“What was that for?” Gerson scolded, but faltered under Avior’s glare. "A-alright! We shouldn't have sassed that salazzle the way we did, she was only lookin out for her grandmother--"

“You people have no sense of focus!" Avior roared, starling everyone. "Tapu Lele sent those flares because the situation is out of her hands. We need to discuss our next move!”

“A-alright, then,” Gerson replied nervously, then cleared his throat. “I was thinkin that Tapu Lele needed to send such a big psychic flare because she was sending us all the information she had gathered on Equestria and the creatures living here, as well as brushing us up on other important information, such as her Arceus theory and a list of the ponies she’s met. Friendly, neutral, and enemy alike.”

“What about Operation Cross Contamination?” The graveler suggested from a hidden corner of the rock overhang in an attempt to stay as far away from any angry pokemon as he could. “I think we were supposed to figure out something about that, but we don’t have a lot of information to go on.”

"That’s all irrelevant!” Avior shouted, whipping her tail and dashing rubble into sand, scaring the graveler a few more feet back. “I could care less about the police station layout and whatever hatsus are when freaking Dharak has pledged loyalty to a power hungry mudbray!”

Gon cocked his head to the side. “...Say that again, but slower…?”

“AUGH!” Avior screamed, but then fell to back to the floor, covering her face with her claws.

Gon put a paw on the now resting tail. “Hey, are you okay miss Avior?”

Avior slowly uncovered her face, a tired look imprinted in her drooping eyes.

“It’s more of a personal grudge than anything else, but I suppose I should tell you all...” Avior sat up and crossed her legs. Gon, sensing a story, scooted in front of her to listen with a wide, expectant smile while the others got comfortable a bit more subtly.

“Dharak was the former ace pokemon of Hoenn Elite Four member Drake.” Avior began. “We met back when Cynthia first rose to power in the Sinnoh league and held meetings and sparring tournaments with the Pokemon Leagues of other regions. Me and Milotic were always in attendance, and we had some of our greatest matches wherever we went to visit.”

Avior leaned back, a nostalgic gleam in her eye. “Cynthia always rode on my back, wherever we went. ‘Champions fly in first class,’ she always said. The fans came in droves, and the press and paparazzi waited in ambush even when our visits were unannounced. But I had a much different welcome on our first visit to hoenn.”

“So I was Flying along,” Avior held up a wing and held it horizontally to mime her flying over a vast sea. “whoosh, clear skies all around, plenty of pelipper to catch for a midair snack, omnom nom,” she pretended that her wing ate the other one, then held it behind her back as she pretended to chew. “we were about to touch down, and I was feeling pretty good until--whapow!” She suddenly whipped around the wing she had previously pretended was a pelipper, but this time it struck the wing that represented her younger self, and both wings tussled and fell towards the imagined sea.

“Was it Dharak?” Gon leaned forward, swept up in the old dragon’s tale.

“Yup, and with Drake on his back! ‘Ahh, no! Dharak, heel! Don’t attack!’ But Dharak couldn't hear his trainer, he only saw another dragon type who he had challenged to a brawl high up in the clouds.”

“Izzat really what he said?” Gerson asked dryly.

“Ahh, whatever.” Avior batted away his question with a wave of a wing, then continued her mock fight.

“So we fought, and we might've killed both our trainers if Drake hadn’t taken a huge risk. He sent out his flygon and altaria--ptchoo ptchoo, and ordered them to attack Dharak while he was still on his back! I thought to myself, this guys totally nuts! Both of the new dragons fired--boom! Boom! Drake jumped off! He recalled Dharak--ptching! In midair, thousands of meters from the ground! His Altaria caught him as though this was business as usual.”

“‘Sorry for the trouble, young miss,’ he says to Cynthia. ‘but we’ve been waiting on the new sinnoh champion, and you’re the third trainer he’s tried to knock out the sky. Although, he’s never gone so ballistic before.’”

“He didn’t even know it was her?” Gon giggled.

“Now to be fair, there were a lot of sinnohnians following us to hoenn, since Cynthia was a new champion back then. Anyway, we touched down, boosh,” her wing landed on her knee. “and Cynthia recalls me so I can take a nap. It was a much longer nap than I thought it was, and the next day Cynthia wakes me up and asks me if I'm up to having a fight.”

“So I’m like HEL--heck yeah!” Avior sheepishly rubbed her jaw as if wiping away a slip of the tongue, then leaned forward to emphasize the conversational part of the story. “But, then she gets a bit more serious than usual and says that it's gonna be against the salamence from yesterday. And you know? At first I had no idea what she was so worried about. Like, c’mon, have faith in me, Cynthi! I coulda takin’ him if I wasn't trying to protect you.”

“But then she says to me, for the first time in my career, ‘I’m really worried about what he’ll do to you.’”

Avior sat up again. “Even if Cynthia could understand pokespeak, I couldn't have said a word to her after that. That was my trainer’s expert assessment of the enemy, and I was starting to get a bit nervous of fighting a mon that had the newly crowned champion of Sinnoh spooked.”

Avior stood up and began to mime a sparring match with a punching bag. “I did a couple of warm up fights and exercises in the leagues’ training hall while Cynthia attended her meetings, which were gonna take all day. Now, Hoenn is an old and well established league, so eventually I took a moment to enjoy the perks. The best pokeblocks and pokesweets money could buy, massages and backrubs, I got to peek in on some super expensive and high tech battle items being polished for Hoenn Champion Steven Stone, and I got to meet some of the prettiest dragons hoenn had to offer.”

“Unfortunately for me, some of those lady dragons were already spoken for. I dunno how Dharak found me out so fast, but he barged into the training hall and the first thing he sees is me. Not just me, but all of the lady dragons in his harem and then some. All just laying around, sharing poffins and exotic sweets with me like I own the dang place.”

“‘YOU!’” The pokemon all jumped as Avior’s voice suddenly went down two octaves, and rumbled in a way that everyone could feel vibrating in their skulls. “He runs at me like he’s gonna clobber me right then and there. ‘I CHALLENGE YOU FOR THE KINGDOM!’”

“The what?” The graveler meekly asked, having scooted closer.

“It’s part of the dragon’s code of honor.” Gerson explained. “When two dragons try to claim the same territory or mates, they have a battle to decide who will continue to have access to those resources, who will keep the ‘kingdom.’”

“But, it wasn't your fault!” Gon interjected. “You didn't know you were doing anything wrong.”

“I’m afraid not, kiddo.” Avior explained. “I knew there was a unstable dragon type being housed on the premises that my trainer all but warned me not to provoke, yet I let myself indulge in the lap of luxury surrounded by girls that he’d clearly already bitten.* I can't say that I’m blameless for being careless.”

Gon blinked in surprise. Avior continued, unheeded.

“I knew I wasn't allowed to fight this guy without my trainer, but I had very clearly worn out my welcome in his territory, so he wasn't about to hear me say no. We took it to the arena, no refs and no regulations. We were both prepared to get kicked off the league for an illegal grudge match.”

Avior stood, squaring up against an invisible opponent. “He hits me with a Fireblast right off the bat, FWAHH! I dodged, he fires another one, and another one! FWAHHAFWAHHAFWAHH! Like he’s tryna melt the whole stadium!”

Avior was fully enthralled in her own story, dodging pretend fire blasts and winding up a fake Dual Chop.

“So I get in close, hah, hah!” she swiped at lightning speed at thin air, dodging another pretend attack. “But he’s ready for me! He slams me with dragon rush, OOF!” Avior doubled over. “A direct hit!”

“But I’m not out of the fight yet! I grab his neck with a Crunch attack--aaomph! And manage to throw in a few Fire Fangs and hope for a burn or flinch chance. But he’s not happy about that, oh no sir.”

“He takes a different approach. My legs are unprotected--SMACK!” she stumbled backwards. “Dragon Tail attack! I let go--but I Burned him! If I can just attack from afar he might just tire himself out. So I back up and start to set up some defenses. I set up a Substitute and whip up a Sandstorm to help along that sweet DOT. I hunker down behind Protect and think to myself that it’s only a matter of time before I win this match, fair and clean.”

“Unfortunately for me, I forgot that I was dealing with a veteran Elite Four Ace salamence. Maybe if his ability hadn't been Intimidate I would’ve done enough damage to let him wear out, but even that’s probably a stretch. So, I was sittin there, peering out into the Sandstorm for a chance to snipe him. I can't see him anywhere. He was using Dragon Dance before, why can't I see him now?”

“I wait and wait until the Sandstorm peters out, then I look around the arena. Hey, I’m the only mon here! What gives? Did he just give up and walk out the door? I look all around, and then I look UP.”

“His eyes are glowing red from the rafters. I could feel his Outraged aura staring me down like a hungry Ursaring sizing up a Slurpuff!” Avior dramatically fell to her knees, her eyes fixed upwards. “I charge up a Dragon Pulse, too late! He Jumps! I CAN’T ESCAPE!”

Avior crumpled to a heap on the ground, breathing hard, but just pretending to be unconscious. The pokemon all stared at their fallen storyteller, until Gon slowly approached on all fours. He sniffed around Avior’s face until she opened one eye and smiled.

“What happened after that?” Gon sat back up. Avior sat up as well, but with a grinning expression that no one could quite place.

“I lost, that’s what.” Avior confided. “I lost, and I got a huge scar for losing. The biggest one I have. Guess which one it is, huh?”

“The notch on the fin on your back?” The graveler suggested.

“The claw marks on your flank?” Gerson pointed to them.

“That skinned patch on your tail?” The graveler tried again. Gerson tilted to the side to get a better look at it, wearing a rather queasy expression.

Avior’s eyes fell on Gon, but had said nothing yet. He sat closest, and hes was staring at her intensely. He stood, silently, and put a paw on her knee.

“This leg…” He said, with a tone of assurance. “This whole leg is your greatest scar.”

Avior raised an eyebrow. “Are you sure? That isn't even the leg that’s missing a toe.”

“That's not surprising.” Gon confirmed. “since you probably had to get a new leg to replace the one Dharak chewed off.”

Gon was pointing directly at a seam in the skin. It was a line that went around her thigh where the leg connected to the pelvis. Now that the other pokemon were looking, the skin below the seam was strangely smooth, and scars above it stopped at the seam.

Gerson clasped his hands in his lap, rubbing them together with an uneasy expression. The graveler whimpered, turning away from Avior altogether. Gon took no notice of anyone else and asked, “What happened next?”

Avior shrugged. “What else is there? I woke up in the infirmary the next day to the news that Drake is in the process of retiring Dharak and finding a new shelgon to train up to take his place. All of the blame that I should have taken was lifted off my shoulders and dumped onto Dharak’s, and since then I can only imagine how he’s been out for my blood.”

“You spooking these youngsters with old war stories again?” Grandma Sala hobbled into the circle, carrying some burning brambles. She dumped them onto the ground and arranged them into a pile as some other salandit added more sticks and logs onto the growing flame.

“Sala…” Avior shook her head. “You should be resting.”

“Nonsense, Avi. If you have time to keep these kids up, then you have time to warm yourselves around a fire.” She sat down and crossed her legs, some of her children settling down around her; keeping watch, but totally relaxed.

“Alright, now we know that Avior and Dharak do not mix.” The graveler postulated. “What do we do? Wait for further instructions from Tapu Lele?”

Gerson shook his head. “If she was gonna keep in touch, why would she give us those migraine-inducing flares? Nah, her orders are as clear as day: we need to stay away from the Pony Police, and look for Arceus on our own.”

Gon huffed as he warmed his paws over the fire. “That’ll take forever.”

“It may,” Gerson agreed. “we don't have any leads to go on, yet.”

“Nothin suffered nothin gained.” Grandma Sala agreed.

“We’ll be doing it as a team, at least.” The graveler said to reassure himself more than anyone else. “We’ll gain more followers and help each other out. It’ll take work, it’ll take commitment, but we can do it.”

With nothing else to say, the pokemon all fell silent. Their campfires crackled and whipped about in the wind, spinning their embers into the night sky. The fires chattered and squabbled and sang in a language all their own, as though they knew how little time they had to live, thier desperation to make the most of it as old as time and matter. None of the salandit nor the hunters, nor even Grandma Sala with all her years could understand them, for they spoke only in the language of the universe.

Author's Note:

*In the original ANW, ANW dragon type pokemon would scar their chosen mate(s) by biting them. In some fanworks, this extends to other pokemon types, but in this fic it will be a dragon-only thing.