Chapter 33: I’ll raichu a story.

  Brockton Bay, NH, USATuesday, February 8, 2011Type: Electric

  I woke up feeling refreshed, yet burdened. Talking to Victini was a real wake-up call, a good reminder that though removing the Empire was a real win for heroes in this city, there was still much to do.

  Bakuda and Lung. Cherie and her family drama. The power vacuum created in the absence of the Empire. And, of course, the Simurgh. I didn’t know where she’d strike, I had a feeling that would change the moment I tried to scry for it specifically, but she was coming, and soon.

  At the same time, Victini reminded me that I wasn’t alone.

  Looking back, I hadn’t really been myself. It wasn’t like I was a depressed mess, but maybe, the part of the reason why I’d fooled around so much was because I didn’t have my family with me. I wasn’t trying to repce them with shallow, carefree experiences, but I couldn't deny that without them, I cked the same ambition and drive that defined me as a trainer.

  Or maybe the amateur psychologist in me should go fuck himself. It was easy to attribute all sorts of reasons after the fact. As they said, hindsight was twenty-twenty. I was just happy to have someone like Victini a month into my journey and not ter.

  I lost myself in the flow of aura as I practiced the forms I’d learned in my past life. I started out in Veilstone City in Sinnoh, when Maylene’s father, the gym leader at the time, took an interest in an orphan and his riolu. He wasn’t our only master, far from it. As Luca and I traveled the world, we’d made a point to visit as many martial institutions and masters as we could.

  We sparred with reenactors from Rota’s Cameran Pance who cimed to have mastered Sir Aaron’s sword style. We kicked the shit out of that “fighting dojo” in Saffron City, only to get our asses handed to us a month ter by Bruno of the Indigo Elite Four. We visited Brycen in Icirrus City, Master Gurkinnin in the Tower of Mastery, and even beat up Professor Kukui, the “Masked Royal,” in Alo.

  There was nothing special about the martial art I’d learned from Maylene’s father. It wasn’t some transcendental art “beyond mortal comprehension” or anything like that. It didn’t even have anything to do with aura. It was, in fact, just pin karate, a series of strong, basic forms inspired by the movements of machop.

  And yet, those same forms were the foundations upon which Luca and I developed our own martial art. We had many masters, the road ahead the greatest of all. Through our experiences, we learned more about ourselves and one another, until, slowly, without ever realizing I’d managed it, aura began to suffuse my movements.

  That was the crux of aura, I’d found. It didn’t matter what martial art or sword style or meditation technique one used in the end. People could dress it up however they liked, and civilizations throughout history certainly did so, but it was all the same at the very core.

  Humans learned to wield aura, not through rigorous practice alone, but through communion.

  It was by understanding ourselves and our pokemon, by deepening those bonds, that humans awakened aura. Some did it through contests, others through journeys or lives of seclusion.

  I ughed as I felt it bubble up from within. I was on my way to school, jogging and thinking about all that Victini had told me, all the lessons I’d forgotten as I wallowed in the pretense of retirement. Though I had no pokemon of my own any longer, the first step to communion was to understand oneself.

  “I owe you all the macarons,” I whispered.

  A squeaky giggle and the warmth of fme was her only response.

  X

  New resolutions meant new habits. It also meant I had a new acolyte to teach. How long had it been since I had one of those?

  Korina, right? Gurkinn had asked me to beat up his granddaughter during my stay in Shalour. Luca and I helped her awaken her aura, finally achieving mega evolution alongside her own partner lucario.

  In hindsight, Korina turning her gym into a rollerbde track may have been an act of teenage rebellion on her part.

  In any case, now that Victini saw fit to bestow aura to Amy, it was only right that I took her under my wing.

  Literally. As soon as school let out, I grabbed my costume and flew over to the Dallon home as kilowattrel, a new flying and electric type that I’d never seen in my past life. From what I could glean from Arceus’ memory packets, it was a species native to Paldea, a region that had never been on my radar.

  This new bird pokemon was a speedy little thing, barely four feet tall but even faster than a swellow. It had a bright, yellow throat sac that stored electricity, which would then be expended for dazzling dispys of acrobatics, usually during mating seasons.

  I was fast enough on the wing to catch up to Vicky and Amy as the former ferried her sister home.

  I dipped down and twirled in a spiral as I channeled the electricity in my throat sac through my wings. It created two, pretty trails of sparks that traced my passing.

  “Menagerie? That’s you, right?” Vicky asked with a beaming smile.

  “Of course it’s him, the showoff,” Amy grouched.

  “Love you too, Ames,” I ughed, though it came out with a bit of a croaking chirp. Songbirds, kilowattrel were not.

  “What’s up?”

  “How busy are you right now?”

  “I have to–”

  “She’s not busy at all,” Vicky cut in, holding her sister out to me like an angry kitten.

  “Vicky! I have homework! And the hospital!”

  “Both can wait. You were telling me how things finally started to die down since the weekend.”

  “I should still be there.”

  “Nah. What you need is a break. Say, Menagerie, can you carry her?”

  “Easily,” I chirped. They were not as powerful as pidgeot or corviknight, but few fully evolved pokemon would have trouble carrying a slip of a girl. I grabbed Amy by the shoulders and took her from Vicky. “Package secured. Thanks a bunch, Vicky.”

  “Don’t I get a say in this?” Amy grumbled. “Mom’s going to chew me out again.”

  “No, she won’t,” Vicky replied. “I’ll tell her that Menagerie kidnapped you. She likes him.”

  “She does?” That was news to me. I wasn’t sure if I’d ever seen her so much as crack a smile. “She’s always so serious. It’s hard to tell what your mom thinks of me.”

  “Hehe, yeah, that’s mom, alright. She does though, probably because she thinks you’re good for New Wave. She said your puns could use more work though.”

  “Uh… Yay? I’ll take that as a good thing.”

  “Where are you taking her anyway?”

  “Out of the city. We’re going on a picnic.”

  “Ooh, how romantic~”

  “Yup. Toodles~”

  “Bye! Have fun, Ames!”

  X

  We didn’t get more than four blocks before Amy began to squirm.

  “Can you stop digging your cws into my shoulder? It’s starting to hurt,” she whined. She was wearing a thick jean jacket, the kind with wool padding, but it apparently wasn’t enough to make the ride comfortable.

  “You could grab my ankles like a hang glider,” I suggested. “Then I wouldn’t have to grab you.”

  She took one look at the ground and shook her head in the negative. “Nope. I don’t trust myself to hang on to you. Switch. I know you have different forms.”

  “Alright, give me a minute.” I nded on a nearby rooftop before shifting back.

  “What’s your theme today? Things that fly? Or just birds specifically? You have pidgeot, right? That was pretty cool to ride.”

  “Electricity, so no super-raptors for you.”

  “Lame… Fine, whatever. Why’re you really dragging me out anyway?”

  “Aura. You know, that thing that Victini gave you. Have you tried pying with it yet?”

  Amy looked unsettled at that. “I.. I thought that was just something in the heat of the moment. You’re saying Victini is a trump? Is aura dangerous?”

  “To the wielder? No, it’s not. Aura is… It’s the light of the soul. It’s the truth of all things, the power of the Origin. It’s the beginning of creation and the bonds that bind all existence.”

  “Has anyone ever told you that you suck at poetry?”

  “I’m serious, Amy. What Victini did for you wasn’t just meant to be a feel-good moment. She effectively brought your soul to the surface and unlocked your potential.”

  “Is… Is that why you don’t have a corona? Is this about your alpaca-god thing?”

  “Exactly. I told you before that I’m not a normal cape. And now, neither are you.”

  “I’m not sure what to say to that.”

  “Then say nothing. Just observe and process,” I replied as I pulled her to her feet. “There’s a lot I need to say, and even more that we need to do, but that can wait until we’re outside the city.”

  “Fine, let’s go.”

  “Good. Shift, luxray!”

  I felt my spine curl as I became the apex predator of Sinnoh’s countless peaks. Bck fur repced crimson armor. Gleaming, golden pupils gazed out at the world amidst blood-red scleras. A golden tuft of fur, shaped like a four-pointed star, capped a long, whiplike tail.

  I was massive, almost five feet at the shoulder. The enormous, bck mane added a few more inches on top of that, making me look even more imposing than I was.

  Luxray were a lot like lions in this world. They were one of the most romanticized pokemon in Sinnoh history, beaten out only by lucario. They formed packs, usually led by a dominant male, and often had bitter rivalries amongst those of the same gender.

  And, like lions, they featured heavily on the coat of arms of many noble families, martial orders, and governments. They were said to represent courage, decisive leadership, and of course, power. Hell, back before they settled on the official crest of the Lily of the Valley, there were people who wanted the emblem to feature a luxray gring out at the viewer.

  “Woah…” Amy gasped. She was used to my transformations by now, but even she couldn’t fully dismiss the unsettling feeling of having a six hundred pound lightning-lion staring her down. I knew from personal experience that it was a very poignant way to be reminded of one’s own mortality.

  So, I did what I did best: I doubled down. I let out an exaggerated yawn, showing off my massive chompers, before giving my nominal girlfriend a careful, friendly lick.

  Luxray were felines. And, like all felines, they had barbed tongues. As apex predators, their tongues were more akin to sandpaper and could quite literally scrape meat from bones.

  Naturally, being licked by a luxray, however gently, wasn’t actually a pleasant experience. It was, however, a quick way to get Amy out of her daze.

  “H-Hey! Stop th-Ow! That hurts, you asshole!” she shrieked, punching me in the nose. I snorted and shook my head, clearing the stinging feeling from my nostrils.

  I turned around and plopped down on my haunches so she could shimmy onto my back. She dug her fists into my mane, bunching up the fur to get a good grip.

  “You good?”

  “Yeah, you can move now… Wait… What’s with your eyes?”

  “Hmm?”

  “You said your theme was electric today, right?”

  I leapt down from the roof. My loping strides ate up the ground and I knew I’d see myself on PHO again soon enough. “Yeah? What about it?”

  “So what does that have to do with your eyes?”

  “Luxray build up electricity and can expend some of that charge to see through objects. They use it to hunt prey or look for their lost young. It’s why in Sinnoh, picking up a wild shinx is considered just as dangerous as picking up a wild teddiursa.”

  “All I heard is that you turned into a voyeur. And a furry. A furry-voyeur.”

  “I didn’t!”

  “You did! You literally have pervy-eyes!” Amy said, ughing like a loon. “Don’t look at me, pervert.”

  “I’m not a pervert!” I shouted, maybe louder than I intended. I felt blood rush to my face as people turned towards me. People with phones set to record. “Oh, fuck you, Amy Dallon.”

  “You’re blushing.”

  “I’m not.”

  “You are.”

  “I’m not. I have fur. You can’t prove anything,” I denied resolutely.

  “I can literally feel the blood rushing to your face,” Amy jabbed mercilessly. It wasn’t often that she got one up on me, but I wouldn’t be Bke Isley if I let her enjoy it. An arc of electricity raced up from my paws, just enough to give her a swift jolt. “Eep! Asshole.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  X

  Amy Dallon

  Bke was fast. I knew that, but it was something else to actually ride a giant lightning-lion out of the city. He didn’t have to go very far to enter the forest; New Hampshire didn’t have a shortage of those.

  Then, he shifted back and started talking. He told me about aura, pokemon, and the way each universe came to be. He told me about Arceus and his Thousand Hands, the Primordial Dragons, and some of the other Legends out there, Legends that made the endbringers look like unruly children in comparison.

  It sounded like nonsense. Creative, interesting nonsense, but still nonsense. It belonged in a high fantasy story or as the loredump for an epic MMORPG, yet here was Bke, my best friend, talking about it all like it was the gospel truth.

  Had this all come from anyone else, I would have had them admitted into the psych ward. Except, this was Bke.

  Bke defied all conventions regarding capes and powers. Bke had no corona or gemma, even though the size and complexity of the organ generally correted with a cape’s power. Bke had an entire secondary personality in his head that wasn’t just a different gender, but called herself the Star of Victory. Most of all, Bke had aura.

  I remembered what it’d felt like when Victini “awakened” my own. It was a tangible force, a warm light in my chest that I couldn’t expin. It was both physical and not, with a degree of importance that I could almost describe as a religious experience.

  I'd put it out of mind then. It was neat, but not something I ever thought I could replicate. Powers that inspired were rare, but not completely unheard of. Maybe Victini had an aura like my sister's.

  Then, he held my hand and showed me that feeling again. This time, he coaxed me to draw it out for myself, a light that was as much me as I was.

  My aura was… It was bitter. It was sarcastic. It was filled with piss, vinegar, and determination, all encapsuting a fme of hope that was mostly being stoked out of sheer stubbornness.

  It was that sense of disillusionment that sold it for me. This was me, no frills or misconceptions. No emotion inspired by a master effect would be so disappointingly mediocre.

  I had to face the facts: Either Bke was telling the truth, or he was a human master who’d lured me out here so he could kill me and bury the body.

  “Okay, fine, you’re the Chosen One of some weird alpaca-god,” I said exasperatedly. “But what the hell does that have to do with me learning martial arts?”

  “Weren’t you listening, Amy? Aura is the light of the soul. Self-actualization is the single best way to enhance your aura. And, martial arts being what it is, is a great way to meld the spiritual and physical aspects into something that’s actually usable,” he said, like all of this was supposed to be common sense.

  “If you haven’t noticed, I don’t get much exercise,” I deadpanned. I wasn’t fat, but I wasn’t as athletic as Vicky either. Even before her trigger, she’d been a part of the basketball team, whereas I was a proud member of the go-home club. “I’m not ready for magic kung fu lessons.”

  That did not deter him. If anything, he looked even more insistent. “All the more reason to start now. Aura gives you a deeper understanding of emotions, both yours and others’, as well as physical enhancements. Hell, my Heal Pulse is also an application of aura.”

  “How? You said aura was the ‘light of the soul’ or whatever. What does your shitty poetry and self-actualization have to do with healing sers?”

  “Hush you. I’m being literal when I say that. It’s also bonds. Hmm… In fantasy terms, think of it like sympathetic magic. I use a bit of my vitality to coax the same response in my target. Make sense?”

  “No! In what loony world is that supposed to make sense?”

  “Well, too bad. We can start with stretches. Then, we’ll run ten ps around this clearing. After that, we’ll do some basic core exercises, push-ups, and finally start teaching you some of the basic kata I started with.”

  “No. You can’t make me exercise, Bke,” I huffed, arms crossed over my chest. I didn’t care if it made me look like a petunt child. Working out in the woods to learn magic kung fu sounded like a horrible idea.

  “Come on, Amy! You’re always saying how annoying your power is. Here’s your chance to get something different. You could be a brute and punch people in the face like your sister.”

  “I’ll leave the face-punching to her, thanks.”

  Bke groaned in disappointment. He muttered to himself, then said, “Okay, fine. I guess I need to pull out the big guns.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “You leave me no other choice. Remember, Amy, you’re the one who pushed me this far.”

  “You can’t force me to exercise, Bke.”

  “I can and will. Shift, jolteon!”

  A white light engulfed Bke. He shrank, going from a full head taller than me to barely reaching my knees. Then, the light faded to reveal a bright, yellow… cat. Or dog. Fox? Some kind of furry creature with a canary-yellow body and a white mane.

  Bke yipped and stared up at me with big, expressive eyes. His ears were disproportionately long, and in a way that seemed oddly familiar. His fur was poofy, sticking out all over the pce as if someone had run an electrical current through him, though that only managed to add to his overall cuteness.

  “Really? Your st resort is puppy eyes?” I sighed. “Bke, I’m not going to be your workout buddy no matter how cute you are.”

  “So I’m cute?”

  “Yes, yes, you’re fucking adorable. Now change back, you idiot.”

  He did not change back. Instead, he hopped into my arms, all but demanding to be cuddled.

  I caught him by reflex, and froze.

  A torrent of information flooded my brain. I now knew what this was. It was an eevee, that bundle of fluff and stem cells, just… evolved. Its cells had specialized in a truly astounding way.

  Everything about this creature had been optimized for speed. The way its muscles were formed, especially in the legs, spoke of explosive power and agility.

  Its entire nervous system had been enhanced, forming a cellur structure I’d never seen before. It could receive visual or audio input, process that information, and react with almost zero dey. It could, quite literally, pounce before a human had even registered that there was a threat.

  Likewise, its fur became more conductive, channeling currents from the electrical nodes beneath its skin. A byproduct of this shift was that its fur also became more durable, yet with a thinner connection at the base. This thing could unch its fur like a gatling gun.

  And yet, it was unmistakably an eevee. I could see the way it had evolved, the little traces in its DNA that spoke of a far cruder, if more versatile, youth.

  Victini had been perfection manifest, the absolute pinnacle of biology in a way I couldn’t hope to replicate. But jolteon, this little shock-cat-thing, was progression. It wasn’t as magnificent as a Legend, I doubted anything could be, but the growth that I could trace left my power salivating.

  Then, Bke, the cruel bastard that he was, took it away from me. He dangled a glimpse of biological heaven, and then leapt from my arms with a smug flick of his ears.

  “Nooo,” I whined.

  He shifted back with a carefree shrug. “Hmm, nah. I don’t feel like being jolteon. You already know what might get me to change my mind, Amy.”

  “Come on, Bke! Do you have any idea what you’re doing to me?”

  “Cm-jamming your freaky biotinker senses? Yes.”

  “You’re such an ass.”

  “It’s good for you.”

  “Bke…”

  “Ten ps.”

  I looked around the clearing. It wasn’t that big. “Then you’ll be a jolteon again?”

  “Nope. You need to finish my workout.”

  “You’re a cruel man.”

  “My cruelty is a kindness. Let’s get started on those stretches.”

  I sighed but gave up. Bke was impossible. “If I can’t shoot hadoken at the end of this, I’m going to kick you in the dick.”

  Author’s Note

  Luxray are apparently only 4’ 7”. Fuck that. They’re 4’ 7” at the shoulder, making them closer to 5’ 5” at the snout if not bigger. And given actual lions weigh in the ballpark of 300 - 600 pounds, I felt that a luxray weighing less than 100 was silly.

  And yes, Shaper is helping Bke nudge Amy. If [Anomaly] wants host to be more athletic in exchange for biological [DATA], damn it, Amy will be in the Olympics by next year.

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