ACL: 39. Stop dragon my feet.

Preface

No, I didn’t forget to update. I went to the dentist for a follow-up after I pulled out two wisdom teeth and got three crowns. Including the follow-up, I blew ~$12,500. That’s American healthcare for ya. I’m just thanking god that I can afford it out of pocket.

Chapter 39: Stop dragon my feet.

Brockton Bay, NH, USA
Friday, February 11, 2011
Type: Dragon

As much as I wanted to charge out and trigger another endbringer siren, I couldn’t do that just yet. I would soon, but before that, there was the question of Emily Souza. She was the most vulnerable person in my social circle.

“Em, have you considered joining an art studio?” I asked her. Lisa and Sabah made a studio. Well, an atelier, but it sounded much the same to my uncultured mind. “Artists do that, right? Either start their own or work together in a studio with a couple others?”

“I… I’m not sure,” she admitted. “It’s kind of embarrassing to say, but I don’t know much about the business side of things.”

“That’s okay. But would you want to? Sabah, the person who made my costume, is starting a business. There’s a girl named Lisa who can handle the financial and administrative side of things.”

“A clothing boutique isn’t the same thing as an art studio, Blake.”

“Would it really be strange to have a gallery that shows off fashion and paintings? Don’t most art museums do something similar anyway?”

“They do… Well, they have sculptures and other forms of art beyond paintings, but they’re not a business.”

“It can’t be too much trouble to check them out. Even if you don’t become best friends or anything, Lisa could at least give you advice. Would you be willing to talk to her?”

“I guess… I don’t want to be a burden.”

“You’re not a burden. If anything, think of it as giving Lisa a business opportunity. No matter how good she is, she needs a product to market and your art could be that product.”

She thought about it for a minute before nodding hesitantly. “Okay, I’ll talk to her.”

“Thanks. I’ll introduce you to them in a few days,” I said. If I could connect them, then Lisa would take the hint and start looking out for her. In the meantime… “Give me your hand.”

“M-My hand?”

“Yup. Would you like aura?”

“Aura?”

“The thing that lets me do what I do. It won’t give you any overt superpowers right off the bat, maybe not ever, but you’ll find yourself growing more empathetic, more sensitive to the emotions of others.”

“Do what you d-Blake, is this going to turn me into a pokemon?”

“No, of course not. Like I said, it’s more of a spiritual awakening than a physical power. Eventually, you’ll be able to reinforce your body with willpower to make yourself stronger, but that’s probably going to be difficult to start with.”

She took my hand with a moment of hesitation. “Okay… I’m not really big on religion. Not that there’s anything wrong with your faith in a divine llama or whatever, but…”

“Don’t worry,” I said with a chuckle. “Arceus isn’t big on worshipers either.”

I took her hand and pulsed a current of aura through it. Our hands glowed blue as I shared with her a bit of Arceus’ blessing, a truth I’d always known. For her, it must have been like a blind man seeing color.

“It’s warm,” she whispered. She could feel me, how much I cared for her, how much I wanted to protect her. “So warm…”

“Right? This is aura. I wanted you to feel it for yourself first. I was thinking that you might have an easier time avoiding bad situations if you could learn to sense people’s emotions. It’s up to you.”

“O-Okay, so how does this work?”

“Now we let Victini handle things.”

“The cookie gremlin?”

“Yup. The cookie monster,” I said with a snort of laughter. Despite her grumbling, I could tell Victini didn’t mind the description.

I called her out so they could have their moment. Emily still needed more help. Her problems didn’t disappear just because she had legal ID now. But for now, this was what I could give her, a gift beyond money alone.

X

‘You know, Blake, you’re surprisingly good at managing people,’ Victini’s voice echoed in my mind.

After awakening Emily’s aura, I ran her through some basic meditation exercises before letting her turn in for bed. I didn’t get to train as much as I’d have preferred unfortunately; her immediate wellbeing was more important than completing Raikou’s quest as soon as possible.

‘What makes you say that?’ I asked. We were now walking home at three in the morning.

‘You’ve got several people you care about, all belonging to different factions in the city. You’ve been trying to connect them together.’

‘Of course. I don’t want to be the center of this network. Hell, it’s not really a network, at least, not one I formed intentionally. It just kind of happened.’

‘So you’re not building a harem of cute girls?’ Victini snickered. I could practically see the smirk on the gremlin’s face. ‘Her emotions were pretty clear, you know, especially when you asked to hold her hand. Aura is communion. Emotions flow both ways. I know you felt it, too.’

‘Shut it. It’s not like that.’

‘Poor Emily, doomed to wallow in unrequited love. Is Elle more your type? Is it because she’s blonde? Humans seem to have strange fixations when it comes to the color of your head-fur.’

‘Emily’s plenty pretty, but that doesn’t mean I want a romantic relationship with her. And that definitely doesn’t mean I’m trying to start a harem.’

‘I’m just sayin’. There’s Emily, Elle, Amy, and I know you think Amy’s cousin is gorgeous.’

‘You’re a thousand years old. Please act your age,’ I said with a mental sigh. Having a voice in my head was exhausting.

‘I am. I hear it’s all the rage for us old grannies to pester the young’uns about their love lives. Besides, for most of human history, harems were very common among powerful men, sometimes women, too.’

‘Please find other hobbies.’

‘Hmm… Nah. But really, you seem very attached to Emily.’

‘She’s the very first person I helped. Back when I was still trying to figure myself out, she was a random homeless girl I ran into. I guess I don’t want to leave things half-finished.’

‘So you’ll leave her with Lisa and Sabah.’

‘Yeah. Elle has Melanie and the crew. Lisa and Sabah have each other. Amy has all of New Wave. Emily, she’s got no one but me, and I don’t think that’s a healthy mindset.’

‘It’s not. Who knows? If you get her some female friends, she’ll get over this crush, or at least frame it better in perspective.’

‘That’s the idea.’

‘Smart boy. That’s decades of being a professional trainer, I suppose.’

I chuckled, lost in fond memories. ‘You have no idea. You don’t become as strong as we did without having just as strong personalities.’

‘Who was the worst?’

‘Depends on what you mean. Marsh, my ursaluna, was the most relaxed ‘mon in the world, until someone stole her honey stash. Then she’d get just as bad as a hydreigon. Blitz was a diva. I shouldn’t have introduced my scizor to that TV show about a group of kricketune making an orchestra out of buzzing wings. He sulked until I bought him the TM for Bug Buzz.’

‘Really? Scizor aren’t usually that emotive. Most of the ones I met tended to be pretty stoic, all “I’m a knight bound by duty and responsibility,” and whatnot,’ she said with a husky, Batman-esque voice.

‘No, that was Eos, my volcarona. Not the weird voices, the duty though, that’s spot-on. Elesa, the Nimbasa City Gym Leader, thought it’d be hilarious to show my volcarona an archeological documentary. It was about the Iri’Koi people who lived in the deserts of Unova a few centuries ago.’

‘Ooh! I remember them. They used to worship the overgrown firestarter, that one old one in the desert castle?’

‘Only a Legend would call an ancient volcarona an “overgrown firestarter.” Most people have a bit more respect for living calamities.’

‘So Eos saw a documentary about sun worship? Didn’t those guys think that the sun was the Eye of God or whatever? And that volcarona were therefore God’s tears?’

‘Yup. Eos only recently evolved then. She got it into her head that she’d molted and ascended into godhood and she had a divine responsibility to shine the light of Arceus upon unworthy souls.’

‘Pftt. Oh yeah, it’s coming back to me. Your team was pretty kooky now that I think about it. Is that why she called you her “earthly father” when we met?’

‘Yeah, as opposed to Arceus, her “heavenly father.” She finally stopped when I took her to meet the Lake Trio in Sinnoh. They had a hell of a time explaining to her that the ol’ llama upstairs doesn’t actually want worship in the normal sense.’

‘Your team sounds like fun.’

‘They were the best,’ I said with a nostalgic smile.

‘Want me to look for them?’

‘Huh? You can do that?’

‘Why not? I mean, I can’t really bring them over, but I can pass on a message.’

‘I… I don’t even know where they are,’ I muttered, floored by the possibility that I might see some of them again. ‘Some of them…’

‘Not every story has a happy ending, and not every happy ending is for everyone.’

‘No, no it’s not…’ I closed my eyes tight and took a deep breath. ‘But the ones who made it… Would you?’

‘I would. Who should I seek out first?’

My mind went to Luca, my starter, my brother. But no, he might not know where everyone had gone after the final battle. ‘Titania. She had a court in Petalburg Woods, back when we took a break in Hoenn for a few years. If she’s retired, that’s where she’d go. If anyone kept track of where the others have gone, it’d be her. She’ll be able to reach them all.’

‘Alright, Blake. That’s what I’ll do. Gardevoir don’t really suffer from old age anyway, perks of being an immensely powerful psychic. Hehe, a court in the largest stretch of forest in Hoenn? The Fairy Queen indeed.’

‘Thanks, Victini. Truly.’

‘I won’t be here as frequently to help you, you know that, right?’

‘I do. But if it means letting my team know I’m still around, then it’s worth it.’

‘So be it. Off to Hoenn, I guess. Although, maybe after today. You might need me to deal with that Lung guy.’

‘That sounds good.’

‘You know, the Leagues are going to freak out when they realize a Legend like me is taking a road trip.’

‘The birds do it all the time.’

‘But they’re lesser legends, more like members of a rare species rather than unique souls like me.’

‘You rarely appear in front of people. Will the Leagues even know you’re gone?’

‘I might show up in front of Iris just for the giggles.’

‘Heh, I still can’t believe that brat became Champion.’

‘She’s got heart.’

‘You’re right. She does,’ I agreed, ‘and sometimes, that’s all that matters.’

X

I strolled into Advanced English Literature, coffee in hand and McDonald’s hash brown crammed in my mouth. Maybe it wasn’t the best possible use of two bucks, but the salty potato patties were a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine.

“Good morning,” I greeted Dean.

“I see you’re starting the day off right,” he said. He reached into his backpack and pulled out a folder. “Collected notes from your classes for you, man.”

“You didn’t have to do that.”

“It wasn’t that hard; don’t worry about it.”

“No, I mean I would’ve preferred if you hadn’t done that,” I said as I took the folder. That was Dean, a goody two-shoes no matter what. He was so sincere that it was hard to be upset with him.

“I’m the student council president. It’s my job.”

“Is it though? You look pretty on camera and won a popularity contest.”

“Hey, now. I do more than that,” he said in mock offense. “I also give awkward pep talks before football games.”

“Huh, must have missed those.”

“You wouldn’t have if you bothered to attend any of our events. They’re a lot of fun. Did you know our marching band made state?”

“That sounds like too much school spirit for me.”

“Come on, there’s one tonight,” Dean said, nudging my shoulder.

“There is?” I asked. I didn’t give a damn, but I was usually cognizant enough to at least know one was coming up. “That’s news to me. What’s happening tonight?”

“Winter Formal.”

“Uh…” I was starting to get a sinking feeling. I fucking knew I forgot something!

“Blake? You good, man?”

“Yeah, I just realized how much I hate dances. I must have repressed the memory of ever having heard about it.”

“Alright, man. You do you, but it’s really not that bad. It’s friends, food, and hanging out.”

“You’re the prez. You’re obligated to say that.”

“Guilty,” he shrugged helplessly.

X

I found Amy after class to set things straight.

Amy asked me to attend the dance as Menagerie. It had completely slipped my mind, what with the Empire, Heartbreaker’s kids, aura training, Atelier Alpaca, and now my commitment to taking Lung out. Or, at least, putting a stop to his human trafficking business.

To be fair, I was pretty sure any of those was more important than a school dance that we both were only planning to attend out of obligation. I did feel a little bad, dragon would have been a hilarious type for hijinks at the dance, but not enough to actually attend now that I had a valid excuse. Fortunately, Amy was of the same opinion.

“Fuck, thank God,” she groaned in relief as she slumped into her locker. I’d found her between classes so I could give her the rundown.

“You too, huh?”

“Yeah. Wanna tell me what you’re doing tonight? I need to give Vicky a good excuse as to why all the shit she put me through to find a dress was a waste of time.”

“Sorry…”

“Fuck your sorry, I'm thrilled. Well? Am I going to get called to the hospital?”

“Err… That depends... I’m confused because girls usually get upset when I stand them up but you’re happy. So what do you want the answer to be?”

“Oh, like you’ve been on many dates.”

“A fair number, actually. Not as much as I’d have liked maybe, but still. Sure, different world, but I can’t imagine women being all that different.”

“Fine, whatever. What are you doing tonight?”

“Having a chat with Lung.”

“Having a chat wi-Are you crazy?” she demanded.

“I’ll be fine. I don’t think I’ve ever been stronger than I am now, butt-flapping bunny excluded.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure.”

“I’m still going to the hospital. And Vicky will probably be super pissed with you for making me work on dance night.”

“But we both hate dance night.”

“So? Have you met my sister?”

“Fair point,” I conceded. I wasn’t too broken up about her sister’s ire though. It was for a good cause.

“Earlier warning would have been nice though.”

“You know I can’t do that. My power’s pretty random and there are some things I can only do when the stars align.”

“Yeah, I get it. Be careful, Blake,” Amy said, bumping my shoulder.

“I will.”

X

After school, I called Cherie so she could cover for me. If anyone asked, I was busy enjoying myself at the school dance. I’d be having dinner afterwards with friends and wouldn’t be back until late. It was really convenient having someone who knew about my circumstances in the orphanage.

First things first, I still felt bad about skipping the dance. I did promise after all, and dragon really was a fantastic type to fuck around with. But seeing how I was pressed for time, I quickly got changed and took to the rooftops.

I waved to a random passerby as I stepped off the roof of a bakery. “Shift, flapple.”

I shrank, smaller than any other creature I’d ever been before. Even a litwick was bigger, though only slightly. Off the top of my head, I couldn’t think of a smaller, fully evolved pokemon than a flapple.

Admittedly, these weren’t my favorite pokemon. Not only did these buggers carve out their “wings” from an apple, they could curl their wings and fit them together to form the apple shape again. When they did that, they became damn near indistinguishable from normal produce.

During my time in Johto, I ran into one particular flapple that had snuck its way onto a shipment of apples from Galar. Or rather, I bit into one. It became furious and followed me around town until I arranged for a local orchard to take it on. I was pretty sure Jasmine still had blackmail pictures of me being assaulted by a rain of apples that the flapple conjured.

Well, that was how I remembered that these things could conjure produce. And since I knew that was possible, I decided to “apologize” by giving the Dallons a few dozen pounds of apples before running like hell.

I left a plank that used to be part of an old fence behind so they wouldn’t be confused. On the plank, scorched with dragonfire, was a note, “Sorry for ditching. Please accept my apple-ogy.”

That only took a few minutes, mostly to find something to write on. After that, I found another isolated rooftop before switching to a kirlia to expand my empathic range.

My plan was simple: I would find every goddamn brothel I could with “workers” who weren’t willing to be there. I would then kick the shit out of everyone in charge before moving on. They couldn’t enjoy themselves if I broke all their ribs.

Eventually, people would get the message. Businesses would close because “cloudy with a chance of dragon” wasn’t the kind of hazard gangsters were ready for. If necessary, I’d do this day after day until I got esults. Not every pokemon had quite the same impact as a salamence drooling over you, but there was no such thing as a “weak” type.

I doubted things would get that far though. No, Lung would find me long before that happened. The goal wasn’t really to personally track down and maim every single person in the illegal sex trade, I doubted I had enough hours in the day for that. The goal was to play on Lung’s pride and force a confrontation.

He’d show. He had to. Even if he’d rather not, he would because not showing up to fight me would be seen as a betrayal by his men.

Lung’s position as the head of the ABB mattered only so long as his immense power protected his organization from rivals. That was his sole obligation to the ABB, the cornerstone that his “face” was built on. The moment he failed to fulfill this task, his men would begin to wonder why they served him.

They were not unlike a gang of weavile in that regard. No matter their behavior, it was the alpha weavile’s job to protect its pack from the consequences of its actions.

I sat atop a random burger joint and drank deep of the emotive currents. The city’s collective emotions were as unpleasant as always, with a foul aftertaste that I could only describe as chalky and chemically. It tasted better than it used to, but I could now understand why Titania had never been a fan of cities.

I hopped from rooftop to rooftop, teleporting short distances to make the jump. My range wasn’t as wide as I’d like, but every kid in the city grew up with regular warnings of where gang territories began and ended. I didn’t need to search the whole city, just ABB turf.

Lust was an interesting emotion to track. It didn’t taste bad per se, not like hate. That was because lust wasn’t generally a “bad” emotion. It didn’t result from a negative stimulus, quite the opposite. If anything, lust tasted nice. It was sweet, with a fragrant aftertaste that was somewhere between floral and pungent.

But, much like honey or caramel, too much was unpleasant, too one-note to enjoy savoring. In large doses, it became cloying, with a suffocating sweetness that muted other emotions.

That was how I found the first brothel. It was a building in Brockton’s chinatown that was shaped like one of the pagodas from Chinese postcards. Outwardly, it advertised itself as a massage parlor. But unless the massage parlor also hosted daily orgies with eighteen people upstairs, I’d found my place.

And it was… completely legitimate.

Well, not legitimate, there was a reason they advertised as a massage parlor, but not morally objectionable to me. The bulk of the lust I could taste came from the clients, not the prostitutes. I could feel the workers and they were… bored.

No one was being raped. No one was injured. No one was here against their will, at least, no more than anyone wanted to be at their jobs. It really was like any other shift work to them: Meet a client, service them, and try to convince them that you’re not bored out of your skull. 

I moved on. As sweet as undiluted lust could taste, there was something off-putting about sipping a cocktail of someone else’s orgasmic bliss. 

It didn’t take me long to find somewhere with a more malicious business model. The currents of emotion made me retch and I wondered how I could have missed such a place before. Sure, the city was a big place, but this building reeked with the cloying, sour note of a rotting corpse. The undercurrent of sweet lust made it that much worse.

I teleported to and fro, committing each location to memory. Now that I was actively searching for it, the distinct cocktail of fear, desperation, lust, and greed could not be hidden. I’d avoided turning into a kirlia in the same way one might hold his breath while walking by a dumpster. That was a mistake.

I dialed the PRT, quietly informing them of exactly where and what I’d be hitting. They’d probably chew me out, something about being irresponsible or considering the broader consequences, but I was beyond caring.

Once I began, I intended to rip a path through ABB territory with as few shifts as possible. I’d need to if I wanted to hit everywhere I’d marked. One of my family embodied wrath like none other. He’d had the hardest time controlling his rage. It took him many years to finally make that rage his own, to master himself.

But when he had, he’d carved his legend in the blood of countless Teams. He’d proven to the world that the king of the ancient world could claim his crown even in the modern age.

I felt I could relate now. He’d been a traveler from a distant land, a world as foreign as Earth-Bet was to me. He’d learned the laws that governed his new world and adapted, growing beyond what any dared expect of him.

The laws of Earth-Bet said I ought to turn a blind eye for the sake of peace. Lisa had a point; this would mean war. I was, once again, despite my self-professed retirement, consciously choosing violence.

But I refused. I would not adapt, not for this. My old world was in the right, and if I must impose my own law upon Earth-Bet, then so be it.

“Let’s show them a dragon’s wrath, Regis,” I whispered. “Shift, tyrantrum!”

Author’s Note

Cliffhanger, mostly because I'm still not sure how I want to proceed with Lung yet. Don’t worry, I’ll have this settled in a week or two.

Blake wouldn’t be Blake if he didn’t do anything stupid with his powers. So, apples it is. Do flapple really conjure apples? I don’t know, but why the fuck not? Just tackling something while curled up like an apple would feel weird. And yes, flapple evolve by eating the tart apple so I’d imagine all the apples it can conjure are sour.

Animal Fact: A platypus’ penis is a two-pronged, spiky beast. It’s thought that the spines help the males hold on to the females in the water. If I have to imagine it, you do too.

Oh, and their testes are internal so you wouldn’t find one, if you’re the kind of freak who’d want to check. But during mating season, the testes can grow to be 1% of the male’s entire body mass.

Doesn’t sound like much? All you dudes (I think most of you are guys), ask yourself how much you weigh. Then do the math.