The Price of Freedom

[Isabelle]

You know what it’s like for a Pokemon to be in a Pokeball? It’s not the same as a box; a pokemon box creates a computer simulation for the Pokemon to play in. A Pokeball however… well… you know that feeling when you’re half awake in the morning, not quite dreaming but it feels like it? It’s kind of like that. The pokemon is quite aware of their surroundings, but so much information is lost to make the time go by quicker. To be honest, if the humans knew 100% about what it’s like, they probably wouldn’t send their Pokemon back so quickly. But it is how it is, and it’s not entirely their fault anyways. Can’t blame the pawns for how the board is built after-all. Then again, I guess in the chessboard metaphor, they’re more the King and Queen pieces, but that’s beside the point.

The point is that the Lopunny this story is about, she’s been in that ball for a good month straight. She’s so outclassed by her master’s current opponents, she’s not quite much use to him, but he doesn’t quite have the heart to box her. Turns out his sentiment might be more harm than good, as the lucidness eventually became second nature to her. Her reality was the prison that binds her now. Festering in the world her mediocrity brought about. It’s not normal for a Pokemon to blame themselves for anything, usually the blame goes to the trainer no matter the fault. But she couldn’t help but feel like this was because of her doing. So she spent most of the month, thinking she’s constantly dreaming about her failures.

Then one day, out of the blue, she was let out. The sudden rush of fresh air was a shock to the system as her mind races to figure out if she was still dreaming. Objects slowly shifted into focus, grassy fields, blue skies, a giant ghost Pokemon standing in front of her.
She had a double take on that last one.
Standing in front of her was a wide bipedal Pokemon with spikey hair and a large evil grin that struck fear into her heart.
A gengar.

Adrenalin pumping; she turned to her master. It was at this point that she noticed that time was moving so slow. She saw his hand outstretched slowly encroaching on the weird watch on his wrist.
She turned to her opponent again. Panic started to set in as she saw the gengar start to move towards her. She buckled down in fear, closing her eyes, waiting for the attack that was about to land on her.

…an attack that didn’t come.

She looked up again, but this time, all she could see was darkness.
‘Did I die?’ She thought to herself. ‘Did the gengar take my life?’
Then a glowing white human figure appeared in front of her. It spoke in a high and omnipresent voice, which made her reminiscent of legendary Pokemon.

My name is Omni. This is not the world you know. This is the Omniverse. You interest me, so I have made you part of it.

She didn’t quite understand. ‘I interest him?’ While the feeling of being wanted made her mildly warm inside, she couldn’t help but be a little concerned. Why would he want her? For what exactly?
The white figure handed her a glowing glimmering orb.

This is Omnilium. It’s what ties the Omniverse together. Without it, you are nothing. With it, anything you desire can be yours. But you will need more than this. If you desire it enough, you will find it.

She felt herself get more and more overwhelmed by all this. It felt like this Omni was really expecting too much from her.

That’s all you need to know right now. You’ll figure out the rest soon enough. I’ll be watching … and waiting.

And with that, the white void encompasses everything and she finds herself standing on a newly formed surface. She allows herself to plop face down on the ground. To her current mindset, the dirt would have been too good for her. She wasn’t even paying attention to the sound of running water. Her thoughts took over all function.
‘What does this Omni even expect of me? I couldn’t even appease my trainer. What could I do to impress… whatever he is? Where is my trainer even…’
Tears soak the fur under her eyes, as she refused to rise from the hard floor of the Nexus.
“There’s no use!” She yelled. “I’m useless.”
She just laid there for an uncertain amount of times, wetting the ground while her mind reminisces through the usual failures

Until she felt something impact hard against her head. Wincing in pain, she jolted her head up and peered into the direction of the hit. A pair of evil eyes looked down at her, accompanied by the familiar malicious grin…
Gengar!
It took another swing of its foot, impacting it against her stomach. She scrambled to her feet to face her oppressor. Instinct taking over, she awaits patiently for the command.

Oh wait

The gengar swings a punch into her face. She could feel her life force drain as the dead cold hand collided against her wet fur. Two, three, four, he kept swinging at her, but she kept her ground, hoping desperately she could figure out what to do.

“What are you doing? Fight back!” Someone yelled. She didn’t see who the source was. But it was what she needed.

With little hesitation, acting from instinct, her arm flung into the Gengar. Her fist sent out a pulse of electricity that sent him tumbling backwards shaking. However, this move would take its toll on the poor rabbit. All this punches he landed were drain punches. Lopunny’s last attack used up what little was left of her energy. With a little stumble, she toppled over to the ground, where she slipped into unconsciousness.
But this was soon accompanied by horrible terrible pain as her dreams were being ripped out of her head. She went unconscious around a Gengar. That was a mistake.
She felt as if her brain were being sucked out with a straw.
Then, it suddenly stopped. The pain was gone.

Lopunny must have been out for hours. When she slowly came to, she saw someone standing with his back turned to him. He was a pokemon that looked like a yoga practitioner wearing red baggy pants. She recognized him as a medicham.
“Did you save me?” The Lopunny asked. “Thank you.”
The medicham turned to look at her, but looked at her with pure disgust. She recoils a bit from the glare.
“It is shameful for you to fight that way.” He said scornfully.
She looked puzzled. She was used to putting herself down, but not used to hearing it from complete strangers. He turned to look her dead on. Lopunny got a little bit of a chill from his frightful gaze
“It is ok to lose from time to time. It’s the only way we could learn, but we must at least try. It is the medicham way, and it’s important to our kind. That is where you failed.”
“But I’m not a medi-” she began, but she was interrupted.
“That was thunder punch you used back there. The only way members of your race can learn that is through crossbreeding with members of my race. You are half medicham on your father’s side, so you represent us just as much as I do.”
Lopunny had never thought about her lineage. She knew she must have come about through breeding considering she would have remembered being caught in the wild, but it she never knew she had such a complicated back-story.

The medicham turned to face a large gate in front of them. It was composed of red-hot rocks and it was bellowing smoke from within. He handed her a pocket watch.
“In two days, your wounds will heal. Wait at this gate until then. After that, head towards the tallest mountain, at its midsection there will be men made of stone. Ask them for me. I’ll be waiting.”
And with that, he jumps through the gate and disappears into the smoke.

And there she waited for two days, before following in herself.

To be continued in “The Pokemon Philosophy” found in The Ashen Steppes

[Isabelle]

Continued from: The Pokemon Philosophy

Lopunny stepped through the gate and entered the Nexus. She had gotten so used to the heat that the mere absence of it gave her chills, but she toughed it out. There was much bigger fish to fry.
She didn’t bother summoning a mount. She walked towards the fountain for the next two hours. She spent the time pumping herself up for what she believed to be the most important fight of her life.

As she approached the fountain, he saw him standing there, just waiting for her, staring at her. She wasn’t surprised that he saw her coming; she made no attempt to hide her presence after all.
She stopped when she reached within ten feet of the creature. She got into a fighting pose. He did likewise. Each one stood there. Waiting for the other to make the first move.
Then abruptly, Gengar charged. It was on.

[Isabelle]

vs. Gengar

Gengar lunged forward, fists outstretched. With a swift movement, Lopunny stepped aside and kicked him in the back of the head, planting his face into the solid white ground. Lifting himself up, she gives him another resounding kick that plants him into the ground once more. She presses her foot against his back to hold him down.
‘I can’t let this monster hurt anyone else…’ She thought to herself as her foot dug deeper into his back.
She pulled her foot away and then proceeds to kick him repeatedly. He began to make unusual pained noises, but she ignored it, hoping to be rid of him by any means possible. However, one of her feet brushed against his hand, which prompt grabs hold and yanks hard; causing her to fall over flat on her back.
While Lopunny struggled to get back on her feet, Gengar takes this moment to float back up straight and throws a punch into her stomach. She buckled under the force of the hit, wincing in pain. She felt her energy draining with the hit. She senses him throwing another one, but she can’t bring herself to move out of the way, thus taking another Drain Punch to the chest. She both sees and senses Gengar reeling up another punch. This time, his fist was being encased in shadow. She sees the punch flying at her like a freight train. She closes her eyes in anticipation.
Nothing happened.
She opened her eyes, to see Gengar’s fist going through her face. He pulled it out, and then throws another punch. His arm just keeps phasing just as it impacts with her face.
“Ghost type move, huh?” she said.
Gengar, confused and frustrated, he started throwing punches left and right, but every single one phased through her like it was nothing.
“And now that I’ve pointed it out, you can’t stop doing it?” She said, snickering under her breath.
He throws another punch, but this time she catches it.
“Let me show you what I’ve learned.” She said confidently.
She does a roundhouse kick to Gengar’s face, launching him backwards several steps. Dashing forward, she sent a really fast punch into Gengar’s chest, so fast that is sends electricity through his body.
‘Thunder Punch!’ she thought to herself gleefully, ‘You’ve returned to me in the end!’
She felt her body feel a lot more exhausted from the move, but she didn’t care. Gengar was moving really slowly. From the looks of it every muscle in his body didn’t quite want to budge at full capacity. Taking the opportunity, Lopunny sent a volley of kicks and punches, bashing the ghost in many different places. A kick to a face there, a punch to the stomach here, a good ol’ fashioned knee to the groin; if you can do it quickly, she did it. After beating Gengar senseless, Lopunny reeled back her arm again.
‘Time to cool you down a bit.’ She thought
With focus, her fist started encasing in ice. However, what she doesn’t know is that the effects of Thunder Punch had worn off. Gengar takes advantage of the pause by sending another Drain Punch into her chest. The sudden shock from the pain causes her to lose focus, as the ice gets out of control, freezing her arm solid.
As she attempts to move her arm to no avail, she started to feel sleepy. She looks up to see him waving his arms, sending a wave of energy her way.
Hypnosis
She tried to move but her body started to feel heavy, pressing her toward the white floor of the Nexus. She gradually descended onto the ground. She knew that falling asleep around Gengar was a death sentence, but even with that thought in her head, she could feel her eyelids drooping.

Then her eyelids shot open. Her vision blurred, she saw something was fighting the Gengar. As she came back into focus, she saw that the mysterious figure was none other than Medicham.
“Get up and go! I’ll hold him off!” He yelled.
Without thinking, Lopunny slowly climbed to her feet. She started to run, but she turned back, worried about Medicham.
“Don’t worry about me, go get a second wind or summon something!” He called, dodging another punch from Gengar, “Anything to turn the-”
He suddenly took a Shadow Punch to the chest. He reels back, yelling in agony. Lopunny, heeding his orders, ran off.

Sitting beside the other end of the fountain, her arm began to thaw, but her mind was still in a spiral from the events that unfurled.
“Please Omni,” she prayed, “Please give me the strength to defeat Gengar.”
She focused on that thought.
‘Something to make me stronger.’
She breathed in.
1…2…3…4…5
She held.
1…2…3…4…5
She breathed out
1…2…3…4…5
Then suddenly, that familiar ball of light appeared in front of her. Much to her surprise, it formed to encapsulate her whole body, until it faded into herself. Suddenly, she felt something change inside her. She had never felt it there before, but at the same time, it was incredibly familiar, like she was always meant to have it.
“Thank you, Omni.” She said with a smile on her face.

She arrived back at the site of the battle. Medicham was lying on the ground, barely conscious. Gengar was moving in, about to use his Dream Eater on him.
“Hold it!” Lopunny yelled.
He looked over at her, and gave a bit of a chuckle. Ignoring Medicham, he crossed passed him and started moving towards his old opponent.
A ball of light encapsulated her, causing Gengar to stop and shield his eyes. She felt her body change. She felt light as a feather on her feet, but strong enough to punch through stone. She even felt her personality change as any reservations melted away. A fire was burning in her. The light faded and she stood before a shocked Gengar.
“Let’s wipe that smile off your face!” She said with a malicious grin.
With a kick, she launched herself forward and gave Gengar a solid punch to the face. Not even getting the chance to dodge, he is sent flying, crashing hard against the Earth several times like rocks skipping against the water. He quickly floated himself to his feet. He looked worse for ware before, but now even his dark purple skin couldn’t hide the damage anymore.
He dashed forward and tried to hit her with a Drain Punch, but she easily ducked out of the way and gave him a cheap shot to the ribs (or at least the closest thing to ribs in this case.) He buckled in pain from the hit. She reeled back, her fist burning with fire and sent another punch, this time to the face. The force launched him back, falling flat onto the ground.
He floated back onto his feet again, but this time with a bit more weight to it. He puts up his up dukes again, hoping to at least get one hit in but it was no use. As soon as he did so, she did another dash, this time swinging an uppercut his way. He is launched high up into the air. Then she jumped high up and kicked him straight down into the ground.

She landed next to the ghost pokemon. He was barely conscious, fighting to stay awake. She looked down on him, her eyes fierce, but slightly reluctant.
‘I can’t let him go…’ she thought, ‘He’ll hurt people again.’
She plopped down onto her knees. She grabbed onto his chest to hold him in place and proceeded to pull her arm back in preparation for the final blow. Tears started wetting her face.
‘This is not about me… this is for the good of everyone.’
Her fist ignited in fire. She was crying buckets; every muscle of her body was fighting against what she as about to do. Gengar wasn’t even looking at her. He was so helpless.
‘I must… for the good of…’
Suddenly, without even realizing it, the fireball that made up her fist propelled forward, colliding with the ghost’s face. His body caved in to the force of the punch. He popped like a balloon and his body dissipated into gas.
Lopunny breathed heavily as she just sat there, taking a moment to realize what she had just done.
“I did it.”
She felt her body transform back. As her adrenaline leaves her system, the exhaustion that had been building up the whole fight suddenly hit her like a train.
“I did it…”
She lay down against the cold floor of the Nexus. Tears dropped onto the ground as she slowly fell into a deep sleep.
“I’m a monster…” She thought as she drifted into unconsciousness.

To be continued in The Astral Realm.

[Isabelle]

Continued from “Polimim Ot Emoclew”

Lopunny woke amongst the pale white floor of the nexus; her heart beating heavily, she was covered in a cold sweat. She looked around, no sign of Gengar or Medicham. Climbing up to her feet, she looked around, her mind racing with so many questions.
‘It was all just a dream…’ She reassured herself.
Despite this, she felt the stress compounding in on itself. That is until a sudden voice broke her downward spiral.
“Ah you’re awake!” A voice called out.
She turned to its source and saw a pink colored bear/sloth thing with a gaping wide mouth. She recognized it as a Slowpoke.
“I saw how you saved the day.” He said. “It was the least I could do to keep and eye until you wake.”
Lopunny, after a brief pause, thanked him.
“Though it’s not safe to sleep in the Nexus.” He advised. “You should head to Cinnabar in the Vasty.”
He raised his nubby little leg towards a gate situated in the southwest.
“All the Pokemon go there.” He turns to look at her. “Well, see ya later”
And with that, he back flips into the pond and slowly swims off by convulsing his body.
Heeding his suggestion, she headed that general direction. She didn’t quite know what to do anyways.

Two hours of walking passed and she came across a gate composed of two palm trees meeting together. It looked far friendlier than the Steppes gate… except for that fact that there were two guards in front of this one.
The guards wore all white armor, and had large rifles on them that Lopunny failed to recognize as guns. One of the guards stopped her.
“Halt!” Said the guard just as she was going to walk passed.
Lopunny looked at the confusion wondering what she could have done wrong. One guard pulled out an iPad looking thing, while the other pulled out what she recognized as a Pokedex.
“Lopunny.” The robotic tingy voice of the Pokedex said. “An extremely cautious Pokemon. It cloaks its body with its fluffy ear fur when it senses danger. It runs with sprightly jumps. It is very conscious of its looks and never fails to groom its ears. The ears appear to be delicate. If they are touched roughly, it kicks with graceful legs.”
One of the guards looks up at her, and then looks at the other guard.
“Well, she’s not on any our wanted lists and doesn’t seem to be a member of the PLF.” The other guard said. “You may pass.”
The guard starts waving his arm signaling her passage. Looking at the two guards intently, she cautiously walked through the gate.

To be continued in “Intermission from Doom” to be found in the Vasty Deeps.