“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”
-Franklin D. Roosevelt
A pink humanoid like creature danced across a broken field of rubble, upturned debris, impact zones and scores of burnt earth, a perfect tapestry of ultra violence. Though this creature had all the qualifications of being designated as ‘humanoid’ its stature made it more akin to a gremlin, with its large white arms featuring five fingers where its thumb’s color matched its body, and short stumpy toe-less feet. An ever present smile persists on its large mouth despite the current situation, a clearly happy, jubilant little monster. Large pinkish-white growths resembling twin pig tail hair adorn its head whipped around like the follicles they masquerade as. It carried a gigantic hammer that far out classed it both in size and weight, a massive cumbersome thing meant for one thing only. Smashing. This creature was called a Tinkaton, and it was a Pokemon. Burning bright light over-saturated an already sunny day as searing hot flames sought to engulf the creature only for it to narrowly dodge. Hordes of screaming, cheering fans watched from seats placed around this coliseum.
The sky darkened ever so slightly as a silhouette appeared. A draconic like figure of three heads and six thin, black wings circled over head, another Pokemon, this one a stark contrast to its prey’s pink and white. Ironically enough, though this creature was classified as a three headed dragon, two of those necks that supported such heads doubled as arms with appropriate elbow and shoulder joints. A dark blue and black furred menace known as Hydreigon the Brutal, it circled over head eager to carry out its namesake in a fashion most wicked. Flying this way and that it gave chase to its pink prey, unleashing a series of areal attacks, blowing apart cover with a merciless vigor, anything high enough for Tinkaton to use as cover blown away or melted with almost malicious precision.
“You can’t keep running forever!” a woman shouted “Lets finish this so I can get back to my dig!” she howled, pointing at a man located on the far opposite side, her spiky light brown almost pixie cute hair bobbing with each exaggerated head movement did wonders to express her annoyance.
A tall angry woman. Hydreigon’s trainer, seemed to be in a foul mood for one reason or another. Each time her monster attacked it sent out gusts of wind that caused her weathered brown leather jacked to ripple out revealing a khaki shirt underneath. Her height could be an exaggeration due to brown leather heels under rugged brown pants, though ‘tall’ would still be an apt description to most. The man she shot daggers at shrugged, dressed in a baggy teal checkered style onesie that wrapped around his neck exposing his arms and shoulders combined with flip flops made the action look all the more condescending. As he non-nonchalantly battled her in what looked like pajamas.
“Oh? Off on another game of pretend? Chasing more fairy tales? Sure you don’t just want to switch with me, seems you enjoy playing make believe enough to use fairy types” He taunted, a smug laugh at her expense spilling from his lips like an Arbok’s venom.
Grinding her teeth together “I’ll show you a game of pretend!” she shouted “Hydra, use Flamethrower, melt that pink chewing gum with legs!”
Hydreigon unleashed a hellish torrent of flame, with all that destruction from earlier their was no where left for the fairy and steel type to run. “Nowhere to hide now you smug little twerp!”
“Oh no you’re right whatever shall I dooooo” the man taunted in a sing-song voice “Gigas use Gigaton Hammer on the ground, if there’s no cover we’ll just have to make some.”
‘Gigas’ the Tinkaton happily flourished that gargantuan mallet with a gleeful grace before bringing it down with such force it caused the arena to shake violently. A quick reminder to its audience of the hammer’s real weight and the strength it took to preform such a maneuver. Shattered bits of stone and earth exploded and shot sky high. Such massive pieces could easily be mistaken for actual pillars of earth. Scorching rays of bright orange flames exploded upon contact with the sudden appearance of a shield of stone, causing them to fan out and violently scorch all sides, but never once breaking through to harm their intended target.
“Oopsie, did I do that? Maybe you’d like to check on these rocks for your new dig, use Play Rough Gigas, make sure she gets them as fast as possible.”
Tinkaton’s entire form began to glow a pale pink. Fairy power coalesced and shone off her hammer magnifying its destructive power. So much fearsome energy built up, begging to be used, to hit something, to give meaning to its existence. The order was given. With one swing, Tinkaton transferred all that energy directly into what stones remained, transforming them into twinkling pink missiles that blazed a sparkling trail behind them. With so little time left to react they impacted their target hard enough that it pulverized the stone and left behind a swirling cloud of dust leaving a captivated audience on the edge of their seats an outcome. A familiar three headed silhouette faded into view, any notion believing this beast to be vanquished vanished with one mighty roar that dispelled the smoke. Landing near its master, slouched and panting, Hydreigon stood on sheer stubborn willpower alone.
“Like master like pokemon, huh? Shephai that thing and you have something in common, you’re both hard to get rid of and don’t know when you’re not wanted~,” he teased.
“HE has the true heart of a warrior Nym, YOU could learn a thing or two from him,” Shephai growled.
As the two faced off, likely for another exchange in words and attacks, the colors began to fade from their usual saturated tones to more of a lifeless dull pale, and finally noir. Following loss of color and vibrancy came pixelation, a rapid distortion in image quality, static took over next, and lastly everything turned off and only text that read ‘no signal’ displayed. A thrown slipper smacked across an uncaring screen causing even the ‘no signal’ text to blink out completely.
“Cheap garbage!” a young woman yelled. She stood behind a counter amid a massive array of goods, both behind her at said counter and all around.
A heavy growl of annoyance seeped though her teeth as she ground them together, a fit of frustration that almost carried through with a second act of violence. A second slipper cocked back and ready to be thrown, but ultimately everything fizzled out, and she skipped from anger all the way to acceptance by burying her head on the counter
“There goes the only thing that could make my shift bearable” she whined. Long, white hair bound back into a singular massive braid stretched down to her thighs peeked out from her folded arms as they hid her heart shaped face in pure newfound depression, the likes only a shift worker could feel. Deep gray eyes closed tight hoping that when she opened them again the television would be magically fixed.
So steeped in the bowels of her own grief, a chiming bell went unheard, whomever entered went unnoticed. In most cases this was quite literally inviting theft upon ones self, but this wasn’t her shop so she didn’t care. No, not one bit, she was just a lowly cashier, a mere employee who performed her job with the assistance of an automated piggy bank. Besides, there were three big reasons this store in particular didn’t get robbed, at least not without a fight. Those three reasons came in the form of Houndoom, Arcanine, and Boltund, the owners Pokemon, affectionately named Hella, Adan, and Ohme respectfully. The anti-theft system was a simple one, if Hella didn’t intimidate you into not stealing or shopping at all; even if you somehow managed to overpower her, you weren’t knocking out all three, nor were you outrunning Adan and Ohme.
An affectionate nuzzle and lick jolted her upright as a playful spark of energy circulated from her thigh up to her forehead. Looking down at her feet she’d find a yellow and white furred canine, complete with tongue out and wagging tail.
“Thanks Ohme, guess I better do my job huh,” she grumbled running her fingers through his short yellow fur scratching behind his ears making his back leg thump rapidly “Better take you out soon and let you run off some of that energy.” Ohme always preferred to stay behind the counter with her which built up electrical energy from not moving around. Hella patrolled through the aisles. Adan being much too large to comfortably fit inside lounged around outside, taking every opportunity to play with Ohme and Hella if they so much as peeked their heads through the door.
With a heavy sigh she worked on clearing what mental aggravation brought on by the television’s betrayal. Forcing her best retail smile she looked outward, something that lasted for all of two seconds before it dropped to an aggressive ambivalence. It wasn’t that she hated money, if anything a freshly high-school graduate such as herself always needed some extra cash. Her problem was how she made said extra cash, working as some kind of wage slave instead of being out there DOING what she said she’d do since turning ten!
“Three pokeballs please,” a squeaky little voice called out to her.
Looking around would have been a pointless endeavor as this customer in particular stood slightly below the counter top. A young boy, likely no older than twelve with a blue baseball cap hiding likely scruffy hair, in other regions one would typically associate this boy with that of a young trainer just starting out, but not out here. Curious, but not enough to strike up a conversation. She produced his items and punched the appropriate string of codes into her automated piggy bank known as a cash register.
“Nne-hundred,” she said simply causing the young man to splutter in disbelief
“N-Nine Hundred?!” He stuttered, absolutely lost in incredulity “I thought pokeballs were supposed to be two hundred a piece?!”
“Welcome to Cresperia kid, new to this region?” she sighed, leaning off to the side using her hand to prop up her head.
“I’m from Vermillion city in Kanto, my family moved to Crashfall city and I started traveling from there,” he explained while digging around in his money pouch with a defeated look.
Well, that was information she didn’t exactly ask for, but she initiated the conversation first so at this point its her own fault “Ah, yeah that makes sense, well get ready, because the Cresperia region is a lot more expensive than most,”
Crashfall wasn’t too far away from here, only about a two or three days hike if one took Lastgrasp forest and didn’t get lost. Actual travel distance was only about a sixty miles but hiking through a forest with no trail meant getting lost was a guarantee.
“I-I see” he muttered placing what was likely all his money on the counter “Can you tell me how to get to uhm” he started before pulling out a map “Sunburst city?”
“Ah second gym badge, well if you take Crying Crystal cave on the southern end of town you might be able to get there in about four days if you don’t get lost, just be warned you’ll be doing some back tracking if you can’t fly or surf” She explained in a monotone drawl tapping her finger on not only the cave system but also why, as Sunburst city was the southern most city in the region and lead out to ocean.
The young boy looked away from her for a split second and sighed “First gym actually, I… I couldn’t beat Tian. Flying pokemon aren’t a good match up for me so I figured I’d try my luck on the fire gym leader at least thats neutral….WAIT did you say four days?! Why is everything in this region so far away?!”
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
A bell chimed and another customer enter, one that made her eyes light up when she saw a familiar exotic shade of pink bobbing through the aisles. She wasn’t particularly invested in this conversation, but dropping it to talk to a friend was the definition of rude, plus if she didn’t say something now, she’d regret it later.
“Cresperia is the biggest region in the world bar none, most of it is broken up, unsettled land and untamed wilderness. Down here, on the bottom half of the curve it’s mostly forests with Crying Crystal but a very rare exception,” She sighed running her fingers through a loose lock of hair that managed to break away from the main braid “I see the wisdom in not challenging a type disadvantage gym, but you’d be much better off just... training up or catching a new Pokemon check out the cave you might actually find something against flying types.”
Purchase made, advice given that may or may not be taken the young customer scurried out likely on his way to the caves or back to his new home town. With a deep sigh she once again buried her head against the counter top.
“The great Veronica offering not only passable customer service but ALSO advice, I’m shocked” a prim and proper voice cooed with a rich accent that sounded as sweet as drizzled honey tasted, a playful tone even if the words were acidic.
Veronica, the Pokemart clerk, lifted her head up to spot the exact person she knew to be talking “Hey Victoria,” she grumbled looking over the other woman’s flawlessly maintained long and curly hair set in a way that perfectly framed rose cheeks and full lips complementing her natural rose beige skin. Compared to Veronica’s simple clothes of cotton shirt and blue jeans, Victoria always wore something extravagant, likely handwoven for a custom fit. Today was no exception with the other woman wearing a beautiful intricate summer dress with a flora pattern, accompanied by wide brim sun hat.
The two girls held up their hands to one another index finger and pinkie extended out and touched them forming a double ‘V’ shape. “V for victory” they sang in unison one with a lot less enthusiasm than the other.
“I’m surprised you aren’t watching the elite eight exhibition matches today,” Victoria said looking around to find a once working television with very understandable red text on its bottom line “Ah, I see what happened there, V lost her temper and broke it,”
“Noooo, the TV betrayed meee,” Veronica whined before an exhausted sigh exploded from her lips “It was just Shephai battling Nim again anyway but STILL,” she pouted to her friend.
Victoria, without missing a beat and not wanting to indulge in her friend’s temper tantrum continued on “The league really do keep making those two battle, out of all the other members, its always them huh.” All without acknowledging the fact an inanimate object cannot and will never actually betray you, that would just upset the other girl more.
“They’re the only two members who don’t like each other. Still... I want to see Queen battle someone, maybe Olaa I don’t know,” Veronica continued to complain
Victoria pursed her lips in thought “Queen is out of the question, she’ll just win and that won’t sell tickets, nothing really against Olaa its just…its Queen.”
“Yeaah I suppose that’s fair… anyway what brings you in, normally its your butler that comes in to get things for your home, to what do I owe the great Victoria Du’Lamount Heallia Joy for such a gracious vis– Owe!” Veronica started then stopped when a folded paper fan smacked across her head.
“You know I hate it when people say my full name, besides were both V” Victoria hissed before rooting around her pack for something “Anyway I’m here because I stopped by your house thinking it was your day off and your mom asked me to bring you this” She produced a container wrapped in a plastic bag.“You forgot your lunch at home.”
A blush blossomed over Veronica’s face as not only did she forget her lunch, she’d never remembered about it until just this very moment, six hours in her work day. “T-thanks V, I didn’t even notice I’d left it to be honest.”
“Yeah I figured. Ms.Bell was just about to come herself when I showed up, It works out because I wanted to have lunch together anyway,” Victoria said taking out an extravagant lunch kit from her hand bag.
Veronica perked up, lunch with her friend did sound like just the thing to get over the television betraying her trust. That and, she needed to let Hella and Ohme stretch their legs, especially Ohme who was starting to let off small discharges of electricity. Letting out an ear piercing whistle to get Hella’s attention as Ohme was already nudging at her legs. As per usual the Houndoom gave a bark of complaint but eventually listened and padded over to the front door where Veronica, Victoria and Ohme waited.
“Alright, you both know the drill, one hour or when I whistle again and its back to work” Veronica explained before unlocking the door and letting both Pokemon out.
Several minutes later and both girls were sitting atop the Pokemart eating and watching the Pokemon play with one another. Rather watching Ohme work off that stored-up electrical energy he built up over the day while Hella attempts to pick a fight with an aloof Adan who thought they were only playing an aggressive game.
Victoria chewed on her food delicately, some type of miniature beef wellington slices and washed it down with a sweet smelling wine “You sure Hella wont end up hurting Adan? Those look like real attacks shes using on him,” she inquired after finishing another small portion of her meal.
“Nah, Adan is stronger than both Hella and Ohme combined. If I had to put it bluntly, hes an elite eight contender Pokemon while the other two are barely high tier gym level,” Veronica explained between a mouth full of cold cut sandwiches, a mixture of ham and salami between two slices of white bread and whatever else her mother could stuff between them “Hey, we’re not old enough to drink!” So saying Veronica attempted to snatch the wine bottle away from her friend only to have it moved away faster than she could grab.
“What’s three more years, besides you can’t appreciate this type of dish without a red wine, I’d offer to share but you’ll just decline like you always do,” Victoria shrugged and poured herself another small helping before biting into her sandwich again “Still, you can tell all that by just looking at them, or have you seen Adan and Hella actually fight.”
“Yeah, I don’t want to ruin my palate with all that rich food I’d never be able to afford,” Veronica rolled her eyes while pulling out and popping open a can of what looked like root beer without any official branding. “Anyway, no I’ve never seen them fight, but you can tell, look at Adan; see how when he moves you can see those leg muscles even through his thick fur. Adan may be an abnormally sized Arcanine but you don’t get muscles that big from just existing, he’s likely used Extreme Speed so much that he can combine it with other compatible moves to the point just using it normally isn’t tiring anymore.”
Victoria listened while looking down at Adan ‘wrestling’ with Hella trying to see what she saw before giving up. The former was much bigger than a normal member of its species, most Arcanine topped out at about six feet but Adan was easily eight feet, if not bigger. The latter was clearly a runt of her litter, a regular Houndoom would look small next to a regular Arcanine but Hella looked like a chew toy against that giant fur ball. Sighing, she shook her head and the two friends continued their meal.
Veronica and Victoria were nearly inseparable in high-school, they were practically glued to each other’s hips before, during and after school. In those four years, not once did Veronica accept what she would consider a ‘handout’ from Victoria even going so far as to get into arguments with her friend over it. They pushed one another forward and competed for honors in whatever classes they shared, so much so they were the top graduates when all said and done, everyone thought the sky was the limit for them both. So why?
“Why are you still working here?” Victoria asked suddenly staring deep into her friend’s eyes “You know Tac is waiting for you to quit right, this whole town is”
“Pffft what, I’m not THAT bad of a store clerk am I? Old man Tac’s never complained before!” Veronica spluttered casting a look of pure incredulity at her friend.
There was a fury welling up inside Victoria as the real reason she was here started bubbling out “You ARE THAT bad of a clerk, he hasn’t complained because he knows, we ALL know, THIS isn’t what you’re supposed to be doing, I won’t always be here myself, you know that!”
“Y-yeah I know you’re heading off to college, I’m honestly surprised you didn’t head there straight out of high-school,” Veronica murmured pulling her legs up to tuck into herself
Victoria couldn’t take it anymore and blurted out her thoughts and feelings in a rapid shotgun of emotions “I stayed to get my affairs in order, it’s why I didn’t go to our graduation ceremony, but its not like I want to leave! I’m staring down the barrel of four years of Pokemon medical and four years of engineering. It’s CRAZY that what I’m most afraid of is coming back after eight years of achieving my dreams of taking over and expanding this Pokecenter only to find my best friend still wasting her life away in some Pokemart when she SHOULD be out there taking on the world as a trainer like she always talked about. What happened V, when did you become passive and just accept what was given to you, it’s like someones whipped the fighting spirit out of you...what happened to my prideful V what happened to V for victory,” things she’d been feeling for a while since the day she learned that Veronica apparently never showed up for graduation, never picked up a starter, and started working at a Pokemart in town of all places.
Victoria Du’Lamount Heallia Joy was, unsurprisingly, a member of the Joy household. Not just any Joy, but a member of the main branch which was why her hair wasn’t just pink, it gleamed like rose gold. Like most Joys’ before and likely after wished to become nurses and doctors, there were outliers like everything else, but Victoria wasn’t one of them. She ate, lived and breathed Pokemon biology and health more than anything other subject, engineering meant she’d be able to make repairs to their healing machines should anything happen. For four years of high-school both Vs were laser focused on their goals, its what kept them together for one another through good and bad times but, for some reason, one of them was faltering.
Veronica sighed and pulled her legs up tighter to her chest “I don’t know V, I just… got cold feet, I couldn’t take that first step. When I thought about it, something inside me just didn’t want to move, I can’t explain it better than that.” A small white lie, hopefully enough to get her friend off her back for a little while. Deep down she knew why. Cold feet froze her in place, preventing the young woman from starting her adventure, a mark of shame painted her psyche. One of a coward. One who would give up at first opportunity. Just thinking about why drowned her mental in sorrow every night, she didn’t want to imagine what stating it out loud would do most of all mentioning it to Victoria. Would he friend look upon her with shame, the same way she looked at herself in the mirror each morning before work.
The two ate in companionable silence enjoying each other’s company despite the topic that still lingered in the air. Finally, Victoria sighed and stood “I can’t tell you what to do with your life, but I also don’t want to just watch you spill your life and dreams away either, I value you too much for that.” with that she extended her hand out towards her friend and helped her stand.
“I-I know...and I appreciate the concern, I really do, I’ll figure it out eventually so please don’t worry about me” Veronica looked down at the still playing Pokemon. One running in lightning fast circles around the Pokemart while another was being playfully batted around by an ‘opponent’ much too strong for her. “Think I’ll give them a few extra minutes to play, it’s been a long day after all.”
With lunch technically over, Veronica walked Victoria to her carriage, a literal Galarian Rapidash pulled carriage. Clambering into her seat, Victoria took one more look at Veronica and sighed “I don’t want this to the be how I remember you when I leave for college, and I have nightmares about seeing you worse off when I come back,” she admits.
A nervous chuckles and an uneasy smile “You worry too much V, I’m not going to be here forever, just who do you think I am,” Veronica said attempting to inject a little of her old confidence into her voice.
The rest of her shift went by in absolute misery. All day she thought about what Victoria said, wondered about her own choices, where she was even going now or even if she was going anywhere at all. Completing another twelve hour shift she locked up shop and headed home, the evening sky was a canvas of golden-yellow with soft, sunlit undertones of orange. Hands buried in her pockets she made her way through empty streets mind still on the conversation from earlier. With a busy mind stuck on other things, her body entered autopilot. Only, instead of taking her home, it managed to get just a little bit further without her realizing. Final road to Last-grasp forest.
“Ugh...even my body betrays me, you’re on Victoria’s side aren’t you,” she hissed. Despite how she may have complained, there was no denying she couldn’t just walk away, in fact, she took another step closer to the outside world. One step lead a second, then more, until she stood once again at the end with one more step separating civilization from untamed wilderness.
That last step. That’s what stopped her. That one last step to leave. Her mind began to fill with all the information she learned in school. Ariados being known to attach thread to its prey’s back to follow it home when darkness fell, Cacturne following travelers at night so they could beat them to death when they are incapable of moving. Driftloom casually picking people up to drop them from a massive distance or Gengar just killing people for the love of the game. A cold sweat ran down her back and neck. A powerfully pounding heart that felt like it wanted to explode. A sudden fog rolled through her mind like a murky quagmire accompanied by a sudden feeling of derealization. Most of all. A complete lack of control. Fear- bold and primal. There was no time to think, no rationalization to be made, she turned and ran back. Pushing her way in her house, up the stairs and throwing herself across her bed. Lights off. Room silent. She began to weep.
“You’re a coward.”
