Chapter 26: Another’s Power

Chapter 26: Another’s Power

Everything was so distant. Joey’s vision swirled with shapes, eyes strained from the force of a flash he barely remembered.

More of the world faded in. The scorching pain from the marks all over his body. The hat lightly grazing the space over his eyes. A rhythmic lurch, lurch, lurch, in time with the sound of hooves smacking the wet dirt below. The wind whipping past him. The pitter-patter of weak rain dripping against his back. The soft, tickling feeling of long hair. A faint trace of smoke.

Joey groaned. He tried to find flat ground to push off of, only to realize there was none. His body was splayed on top of a round, arced body. Joey couldn’t remember if he had gone horse-riding as a human, but he suddenly got the impression that this was what it felt like.

“Hey, he’s waking up!” his ride called out to somebody else. Then, he turned his head to get a look at the waking Joey. It was the colt from before — the one in the hologram Minichino made with that Gate. “You’re Joey, right?”

“Uh… Yeah…?”

As he scrambled into a more befitting riding position, he tried to recall what he was doing a moment ago. They were running from OCEAN, and then they got surrounded… Mark was there… Then there was that yellow cat who pounced him. He ran, and then—

Joey snapped into attention on Keldeo’s back. Rows of trees were passing by them. They were still in Bylaide Forest. “Shoot! We got splintered worse than a thumb against wood!” he cried.

“Yeah, we’re kind of working on that right now!” a new, gruff voice told him. On his right, somebody else was matching Keldeo’s speed — that gray-and-brown bovine, Terrakion. “So far, you two are the only ones we’ve found!”

He craned his neck upwards towards the minccino riding on top of it. Minichino clung to her bycocket hat with one hand and gripped one of the spikes on Terrakion’s head with the other. “Dude, you’re still with us! Cool!” she proclaimed, grinning. “We were kinda worried. You look super beat up.”

Joey winced, reminded of the singes that cat had left on him. “It’s crazy you ain’t super beat up!”

Keldeo broke their reunion apart. “We were chasing after the source of those big fiery explosions when we found you two!” he told Joey. “Cobalion and Virizion went ahead while we got you on our backs.”

“We’re closing in on them right now,” Terrakion added. “You two, get ready to hop off!”

Past Keldeo’s hair, Joey could see traces of the fight ahead. Lines were carved through the dirt. There were holes of empty spaces where piled-up, dead leaves were supposed to be. A whole line of trees had their bark charred black.

He gulped. The searing heat of that fireball was still fresh on Joey’s mind. Surely that wasn’t—

Keldeo skidded to a stop, planting his front hooves to stop his momentum. Joey yelped, flung forward off of his back. As he scrambled to his feet, he realized the fight was just ahead of them.

To his left, a blue blade glowed in the night — to his right, a green one. Joey had seen only their shine in the fight earlier. Now he could see that they extended from the faces of Cobalion and Virizion.

Cobalion’s hooves dug into the ground as he stood tall. With only a flick of the head, he blocked two sharp weapons from striking his neck. One was a long, arching edged piece of metal that reminded Joey of the head of an axe. The other was the dark blue horn on the head of one of the attackers, whose species reminded Joey of a mountain goat. Based on her erratic cursing as she barely blocked Cobalion’s countering slashes, this was that woman from earlier, Selena.

The axe floated away from the pair towards the yellow cat. She seemed more passionate when Joey fought her earlier, but even from this distance, the nervousness was plastered on her face, punctuated by wide eyes. Even when Selena was slashed and knocked to her side, she hesitated to step in.

Only now could Joey notice a faint pink glow on the base of the axe. Was that weapon imbued with the same kind of stone they’d been looking for?

Virizion, meanwhile, was anything but still. Her frenetic foot-work was hard to trace as she moved, as if she were in a fluid dance. She marched, strutted, and leapt around, testing every angle of her opponent — the otter with the ice sword, Zack. Zack tried to clash with her energy blade and cut down to her head, but the horns at her sides guarded her body like a sword’s hilt. Joey wondered how she could fight so well with her eyes always directed towards the ground.

Some of the dead leaves Virizion stepped over got flung into the air. Instead of falling, they hovered in place, edges glowing a strange shade. Motioning with her hoof, Virizion sent them flying towards Zack. The weasel guarded against a few of them with his sword and a Water Gun, but most hit their mark, giving him little cuts in the space between big ones.

Only one thing was enough to displace Cobalion and keep Zack from falling at Virizion’s hands. A surging fireball unfurled through the forest, lined up to engulf both Swords of Justice. Virizion narrowly stumbled out of the way, wide-eyed and a little confused. Cobalion grit his teeth, clearing the distance out of its range with a single jump.

Cobalion and Virizion weren’t intimidated by anyone other than Mark. As soon as the other three were down, he’d be the prime target. That made Joey nervous. Did the Swords of Justice fight to the death?

Terrakion put himself in front of Joey, then ordered him and Minichino to find something to hide behind. The fireball wasn’t aimed their way, but it set the dead leaves aflame and started spreading fast. “You two stay back here where it’s safe!” he said. “Leave the fighting to us!”

“Go kick their butts!” Minichino exclaimed as the two settled themselves behind a bush and a tree.

“Please don’t beat them up too much…” Joey added.

Keldeo passed them a reassuring smile. “Hey, we weren’t planning on it.” That smile turned into a smirk as he squatted down. “We’re just here to put out their flames!” He sprung into the air.

Keldeo’s airtime revealed empty holes in the center of his hooves. Jet streams of water burst from them, propelling the colt forward and skyward. He balanced on air as he moved over the fire. The colt could only keep it up for a few seconds before the water dried up, but it was more than enough to douse the flames before they got out of hand.

This attracted the OCEAN soldiers’ attention. Mark, still standing at a distance, looked towards Keldeo in a panic. “You’re already back?!”

“Bad guys can’t get away from us for too long!” Keldeo exclaimed as he landed.

The cat near Cobalion seemed even less confident now. “Zack, I think we’re in trouble…!” she cried.

“Yeah, no shit!” Selena exclaimed. “We can barely fight off one of them, much less four!”

“Mark!” Zack pulled away from Virizion and peered at the reptile behind him. “Can you get us out of here?!”

The black and blue reptile planted his feet. “I’ll try!” Mark’s jaw hinged open far enough that even Joey could see the strain. At the back of his mouth, a tiny sun grew and grew, turning redder and hotter as Mark heaved in air through his nostrils.

Cobalion and Virizion didn’t back down at the reptile’s challenge, but they didn’t move forward, either. The two grit their teeth as the three soldiers retreated behind Mark, closely gathering behind him.

“That’s even larger than the last one,” Virizion remarked, turning her head away to avoid looking straight at the shimmering flame. “I don’t think either of us can dodge it if he shoots point-blank.”

Cobalion squinted his eyes, refusing to look away. “I noticed.”

Joey gasped in panic. He thought the Legendary Court was supposed to be super strong if they controlled Solceus… How could Mark be scaring them off? If they didn’t act, he was gonna get away!

And if there’s anybody they should at least try to stop in this whole mess…

Joey made up his mind. He shifted a little behind the bush.

Minichino flicked from mesmerized by the fight to worried by him. “Dude, what are you—?”

The crocodile didn’t have time to explain. He sprung from the bush and sprinted through the woods. “Mark! Waaaaaait!”

Mark’s eyes flicked towards him for only a second. He kept charging, aiming for the two Swords.

Terrakion, closer to Joey than the others, grimaced as he looked his way. “Are you crazy?! This marowak’s gonna torch the place any second!”

Keldeo was the only one unfazed. “That’s fine! Any firepower he puts out, I’ll—”

It happened so fast. Joey barely had time to process it. Out of nowhere, a small white flicker filled the air. A chipmunk pokémon he’d never seen before dropped down and crashed into Keldeo. He grunted as he fell over on his side.

That was the opening Mark needed.

It took a second for Terrakion to block Joey’s view, flinging dirt and stone in front of him with his Sacred Sword to form a protective mound. But it was long enough to see the fireball billow out of Mark towards them. It was massive. Unkempt. Engulfing. It didn’t even need to touch the trees to set them alight.

Joey collapsed behind the mound. He heard Keldeo cry out in surprise, followed by the fierce gushing of his hooves. The chipmunk skittered past him, getting away from the overwhelming heat as fast as it could. The scent of burning wood overwhelmed his nostrils.

He really should’ve listened.

It’d be another minute or two before he was ready to move out from behind the shoddy cover. Joey settled on allowing the Swords to handle it first before he made another stupid move. He curled up and shut his eyes tight.

It was the graze of Minichino’s paw that got him to open them again. “Hey. You good?”

He flinched in surprise, then tilted his head. “Barely…”

She helped him up and guided him around the mound. Everything was black. The ground, the trees, the leaves…all that was in front of them was covered in soot.

Keldeo was slouched over, panting hard. Water droplets glided down the edges of his exposed hoof. Cobalion, Virizion, and Terrakion were nearby, stomping out the last flickers before they could grow any further. All of them were covered in scorch marks. Their energy blades were gone.

Mark and the others were nowhere to be found.

“Geez…” Minichino looked around, a grim expression on her face. “He totally wrecked both you guys and these woods.”

“We’re alright. That was far from the worst hit we’ve taken.” Cobalion peered into the woods, looking valiant in spite of his injuries. “I’m more concerned that they escaped.”

“Sorry, I… I tried to get it done quick, but…” Keldeo said.

“Hey, you gave it your best!” Terrakion was quick to comfort him with a pat. “It’s not your fault you got hit by a stray patrat. Seriously, where did they come from?”

“Uh, beats me…” Keldeo remarked as he slowly rose to his feet, his stance wobbling into place.

Satisfied, Terrakion turned to Joey with a more stern expression. “You’re lucky Keldeo and the rest of us were enough to keep that fire at bay! You could’ve gotten yourself extremely hurt!” he exclaimed.

Joey wanted to pull his cowboy hat right over his head. Getting all gung-ho at the last second was almost always how he got himself into more trouble these days. He knew that, but he went anyway. “I’m sorry.” he called out. “I just… I didn’t want Mark to run off.”

“That shiny marowak?” Minichino asked. “What’s your deal with him?”

Joey took off the hat and turned the interior towards her. He pointed at the note inside with his free hand — at the signatures JJ and MW. “He’s Mathew’s kid, and my friend.”

She gasped. “Mathew’s a dad?!”

Joey nodded. I guess I ain’t any good at reigning in any Walker in now, he wanted to add.

“It’s nice that you’re looking out for your friend,” Virizion commented as she approached the two, “but I’m not sure you’d stand a chance against him. That marowak has an unbelievable amount of firepower… an unnatural amount.”

Keldeo looked to Virizion, mouth agape. “Wait, you don’t mean…?”

“That kind of attack did feel familiar,” Terrakion admitted. “You three fought him for longer than me — remind you of anyone in particular?”

Cobalion nodded. “Moltres.”

“If that’s Moltres, then this storm…” Virizion turned her head up towards the sky. The rain clouds that had painted their escape had begun parting, letting the moonlight in. “His is here too. Maybe all four of them.”

Moltres? Wasn’t that one of those birds who had a statue in the church? “What’s Mark got to do with him?” Joey asked.

“Right, you’re a human. You wouldn’t know.” She paused, seeming to think on how to phrase it. “To put it best, there’s a chance that your marowak friend currently holds the power of a Legendary Pokémon.”

“Hah?! How the heck could he—?”

Joey couldn’t finish the sentence. He reached for the sides of his head as loud noises echoed through the forest. The creaks and crashes of felled trees drowned all of them out. The wind gently whipped him — the after-effects of a lasting wave of energy. Joey couldn’t picture just how strong the force was to have affected him from so far away.

Minichino and the Swords winced at the sound, too. “Look!” the minichino called. “It’s coming from that way!”

Soaring just above the branches were waves of bright green energy. The curved forces rose into the sky before fading into flickers in the night, like a firework that never stopped.

Keldeo’s mouth hung agape as he stared. “No way… That’s totally Seed Flare, right?!”

“That makes five.” Cobalion looked to his fellow Swords. “Take those two and move!”

Joey’s head whipped about in his confusion. “Seed Flare?”

“We’ll talk it out once we get there!” Keldeo galloped up to Joey side-first. “If we don’t get going, they might run off just like your buddy!”

At the thought of costing them even more information, Joey relented. The colt winced in pain as Joey hopped onto his back — the crocodile had to awkwardly apologize for his leg grazing one of the more sore burn marks as he mounted. By the time they were on the move, the others were already far ahead.

It didn’t take long for them to reach their destination. Joey could tell they arrived when he noticed lines of trees had completely collapsed. The fallen trunks formed a river of bark, carving through the mystery dungeon in straight lines. The stumps left behind were all cut at the same height — this devastation all happened in one clean motion.

The streams all fed back to a point of origin. Strange mounds of dirt dotted a gap in forest. At one point Joey thought they might have been walls, but the force that wiped out the trees must have ruined whatever the original shapes were. Two fallen trees blanketed the sight, flecking leaves overtop them.

“Oh man…” Keldeo mumbled. “Minichino’s gonna be super torn-up about this.”

A distanced, anguish scream on the other side of the clearing confirmed his suspicion.

Joey was intimidated by the sight. “That move’s done more damage than a razor on a head of hair.”

“That’s what I’d expect from Seed Flare!” Keldeo slowly strafed around the space, joining the others’ search for the source. “That’s Shaymin’s move, you know.”

“I reckon he’s a Legendary Pokémon, too.”

“Yup! Normally, he flies around the world, restoring trampled flowers and fallen trees,” Keldeo explained. “But I hear that, when he goes all out, he’s the one wrecking the place, kinda like this. Virizion told me she saw him do it once — it was totally scary!” The thought seemed to excite Keldeo, and he almost sped up before wincing at his singed leg.

Joey stared at the destruction around them. “I bet.”

“But here’s the thing.” Keldeo’s expression hardened. “Shaymin’s…not around. He—”

“You.”

That firm, seething word echoed through the forest. It was quickly followed by a slam, and the sound of crumbling. Cobalion had found who they were looking for.

Keldeo rushed to join the crowd. Virizion, Terrakion, and Minichino surrounded a scattered group of unconscious pokémon. In the center was Cobalion, using his weight to press the culprit against the shabby dirt wall.

“That power is not yours,” he spat. “Explain yourself!”

Joey’s maw hung open in surprise and confusion as he craned his head around Keldeo’s mane. The person Cobalion had confronted was… “Jermy?”

The bandanna-garbed pikachu coughed. “It’s a long story,” he answered Cobalion, before looking to Joey. “Man, the last way I thought this was gonna come out was with me biffing you guys with it…”

“‘Biffing’ is putting it lightly!” Terrakion exclaimed. “You’re lucky you didn’t kill anybody here!”

Jermy nodded in agreement. “That watchog used Hypnosis to control me.” He flicked his tail in the direction of one of the unconscious pokémon — a taller-looking chipmunk with weird striped on his body. “He forced me to go all out against Mathew and Meowth.”

“Wait, they’re here?!” Joey hadn’t even noticed on first pass. They were so muddy and beaten that they were hard to recognize splayed out like this.

Minichino approached something in the mud next to Meowth. “Hey, at least they got the Dwelling Bag.” She held it up in the air. “We’ve got revivers.”

“Phew…” Joey was relieved, but this didn’t answer the question at hand. “You’ve had this Legendary Pokémon power with you and you ain’t ever used it?” he asked Joey.

Jermy nodded sadly. “If I wasn’t under his thumb, I would never have. It’s not like I wanted this in the first place.”

“And yet here you are.” Cobalion’s press was unrelenting. “You house a stolen Essence. You were there when he died, weren’t you? Urshifu couldn’t find it in the rubble.”

“I wasn’t there during the fight. But…” Jermy hesitated, breathing heavily.

“Right, I totally forgot!” Minichino exclaimed, having just pulling out two seeds. “Shaymin died dueling Urshifu super early on in the war. When he died, the power spilled out of him out in the open. It’s supposed to be the winner’s responsibility to take care of their power until the war’s over and everyone comes back.” She acknowledged Joey. “I didn’t hear anything about it getting stolen…”

“We agreed to keep it a secret from the public,” Virizion explained. “This is the first time anything like this has ever happened during a Legendary War. It’s not unusual for Essences to be hard to find in the rubble. But disappearing? That’s new.”

“Ha. Haha…”

Jermy’s frail laughter echoed through the forest. All of them looked uneasily at the pikachu.

“It was us.” He hung his head. “It was all us. It’s OCEAN’s whole plan.”

Joey gasped. There was so much going on that it was hard for him to follow, but he understood enough. OCEAN was stealing Legendary Pokémon’s power, and Jermy had one. “Why the heck did you take it?!”

“They needed somebody to test the strategy on. What other bum would they turn to when they finally got their hands on an Essence?” He slumped under the pressure. “I was the first.”

The past twenty four hours were like a freshly drawn letter ruined by a spilled ink vial. Ugly splotches of pure black flooded the page, forming an impenetrable pool over the words. This page of Demurke’s life was illegible to her — but the words untouched, fresh strokes still glistening as they dried, said enough about the contents.

An OCEAN soldier was killed. Their retaliation was in full-force. And tonight, Demurke stood among them.

The murkrow watched as green shockwaves tore through the dungeon in the distance. She wasn’t a part of the hunt — Emily had permitted her to stay with her and Dit on the back-line long before they had arrived. She was far enough away from the action that she could see figures march, move and skitter about through the gaps in the trees.

Dit was playing guessing games on which one was which. “Oh, I dat one’s Mathews! Or, no, maybe…”

Demurke just kept her beak shut until her father stopped. She didn’t like that game.

It was fairly quiet on the hill. Dit had told the soldiers that this was meant to be a learning experience for their newest, so the more experienced members were gathered around the battle flag, on standby in case the situation grew dire. The pidgeot tasked himself with supplying his power from afar.

The hurricane symbol creased and whipped at the force of the storm hanging just above them. Demurke’s hat protected her eyes, but the rain was so forceful that it was depressing its shape. Dit’s blue wings fit right in by contrast — she was so used to seeing his wings glisten with droplets that it was hard to picture him with dry plumage.

Just after Jermy’s attack rang through, a figure emerged at the base of the hill and climbed. A few of the soldiers rose and got into defensive positions, but the resistance quickly dissolved at the sight of who approached.

“Emily!” Dit exclaimed. “How’s da fight?”

Emily looked up towards him as she continued making her way to the two of them at the base of the flag. “Not ideal,” she confessed. “The squads surrounded them, but the weather proved to be a disadvantage for both parties. A few fled along the dungeon’s perimeter, while some others used the dungeon shift to displace themselves. The squads are splintered from chasing after them.”

Dit seemed a touch disappointed, but his confidence was not swayed. “Da lot of ‘em are all bunched up in lil’ groups now! All we gotta do is—”

“Dit, the Swords of Justice made it to the fight. We need to call everyone in Bylaide Forest back and regroup.”

In the distance, thunder crashed down.

“Whaddaya talking about?!” the pidgeot cried. “Dis oughta be da best time to strike!” Demurke wasn’t surprised that Dit was more bothered by the order proposition than the new development. They knew the Swords would not be far away, after all.

“I disagree.” Emily squatted down and grabbed at a low part of the flag’s pole. “If they were still a coherent unit, we could afford to collapse on them all at once. But we came here with enough people for one fight, not many.” She pried the flag from the ground. The stake holding it in place remained half-buried. “The forces we brought are not equipped for a battle on multiple fronts with five Essence-holders.”

“We could still put ‘em a couple feet undah!” Dit proclaimed. “Maybe da pint-sized ones aren’t ready, but us leaders trained for fights just like this!”

“It’d have to be decisive,” Emily reminded him. “The circumstance is bad enough with Legendary Pokémon witnessing this at all. But if we kill a Sword of Justice here, the others will double their efforts to find out who we are and dismantle us.” She glared at Dit firmly. “Do you believe you, me and David can really take all of them and win?”

The pidgeot deflated. He looked to Demurke, as if she was supposed to have an answer for him.

“I—” She paused for an ‘ahem’. It was no wonder she was hoarse considering she hadn’t spoken all night. “I-I dunno.”

Dit seemed pained by the answer. “So we’s just gonna retreat…?”

“No. We will reduce the effort to something less overt — surveillance parties.” Emily pointed a flipper towards the area where the shockwaves came from. “One will follow Jermy and everyone who gathers around his attack.” Her flipper shifted eastward, where the dungeon bordered with the base of a pair of mountains. “The other will follow Mr. Persian and everyone else who retreated to the east. Once we know which group has fewer Essence-holders, we will focus the armies on them. We could reasonably win a fight with the weaker group, if we can catch them off-guard.”

“And if dose stragglers start spreading da word before we can get to ‘em?”

The empoleon glared at him disapprovingly. “We have options besides killing them.”

“Hmph.” Dit seemed dissatisfied, pouting and turning away from Emily, but the teeth in his resistance was gone. “You da boss.”

Demurke was still chewing on how Emily had categorized the groups. Obviously, Jermy was still out there, given the Seed Flare earlier, but… “M-Mr. Persian’s still out there?”

“He is.” Emily nodded. “I tried to talk down him and his son earlier. He managed to slip away — he’s faster than I expected.”

She came just short of sighing in relief. Rooting for the enemy is a sign of an insecure position, Demurke, she reminded herself. I can’t show that kind of weakness in front of Emily! Instead, Demurke straightened her posture and nodded.

Her father just shook his head. “How many’d we even get?” he asked. “Feels like dis was all a waste ‘o time.”

“If my reports on what happened down there are accurate…” Emily turn the flag in her flipper, using the other to fold up the flag. “One was killed. In a group that small, that could be enough to destabilize them.”

As Emily and Dit put the troops in motion to call everyone out of Bylaide Forest, those words echoed through Demurke’s mind.

Save those two Service Guild members, Demurke had spent at least a week getting to know everyone in that group. She watched Mathew and Joey claw their way up the recruitment ladder. She followed Politoed’s orders, toppled dungeon pokémon by Breloom’s side, and cleaned rooms with Minichino. She’d known the others for years.

Now one of them could be dead.

I can’t get worked up on the battlefield, Demurke thought. Shame creeped in as soldiers walking beside her passed worried looks. Her beak may not be as expressive as lips, but they could still read her face like an open book. She tilted her hat down, hoping the night would hide the rest.

Two deaths in twenty four hours — and both of them now rested on her conscience. It was hard enough when she knew who died. She was stuck wondering which one it was. Obviously not Mr. Persian or Jermy, so who?

Who would she be able to handle dying?

It was an awful thought. Comparing people’s deaths was an awful thing to do, but here Demurke was, unable to help herself.

Somebody in the couple losing their other half would be heart-wrenching. After he helped her in that cave, she only wanted the best Mathew. Joey’s just a kid. Minichino would be tragic, because…well.

And Meowth…

“So y-you aren’t leaving Kalmwa’er?”

Meowth’s dorm already looked barren. His two roommates, Politoed and Breloom, were already gone, so the fridges were emptied and the walls were stripped of their personalized decor. The cat’s attention was split between packing up what remained into suitcases and speaking with her. He was giving more of it to the luggage.

“Nope,” Meowth said as he carried a microwave from the dorm’s small kitchen space to his stack of belongings. “Did you think I was?”

“W-Well…” Demurke paused and paced a little in his room, looking for the right way to say what she wanted to. “I th-thought you’d have a…a lot of options with y-your new license. You could f-find work almost anywhere in the w-world!” She looked towards the dorm’s window for a moment. “There’s…a lot out there.”

Meowth didn’t seem phased by her sentiment. He picked up a bag that looked stuffed full of pillows. “No thanks. At this point, all I’m looking for is an easy job. I don’t need to leave Kalmwa’er for that.”

Demurke backed up a little. Her tail brushed up against the wall — there wasn’t much room for both of them in here.

She couldn’t help but feel saddened by his choice. There was so much that Solceus had to offer — the mountain of books in her room gave her more than enough proof of that. But Demurke couldn’t leave Fascamile and the few places it sent her to work in.

Meowth wasn’t trapped like that at all. He deserved the chance to leave this tourist trap behind and go someplace far away from OCEAN’s touch. Demurke kept a distant hope that he would take it.

After all, he had a whole life ahead of him.

Please, don’t let it be Meowth…