Book Three: Redemption, Chapter Four-
"And the blood continued to flow," Rei jotted down in her log, "as my mission was still far from completion. I do not know how many more lives will be lost in obtaining my goal, but the staggering numbers are irrelevant to me, for ..." Her pen stopped as her eyes slide to her side. Staring down at the paper, side by side to her head, was the face of a young boy.
Slamming the pages shut, it sent the youngster flipping back a distance, all the while giggling an innocent laugh. Even when standing, he was not still, always hopping, switching between feet. A large, almost frightening smile covered most of his face, which also had an adorable button nose, rosy cheeks, and thick, black framed glasses. His dark hair, parted down the middle, swayed with each bounce. A bag was slung over the shoulder of his dress shirt. Coupled with his unnaturally revealing shorts, it was easily placed as a school boy.
Rei glanced about their settings, the middle of nowhere, before asking, "What are you doing here, you little frea- er, darling? It's not safe for you to be out here all alone."
"Bu' ah'm not alone," he said with cheer, still jumping, clutching a ratty, old teddy bear.
"Yeah, cute," she muttered, rolling her eyes. "But you need someone who can protect you from all the dangers out here, like-"
"Like 'ou?" he blurted out with unusual glee.
"Yeah, like m- beg pardon?" He tittered joyfully as he began prancing around her in circles.
"'ou had bad things w'itten down, didn't 'ou?" the lad questioned, still with a giant grin. "'ou've done some mean things, 'ou big meanie, so..." He stopped and held out his hand to her. "ah had to punish 'ou." Opening his fingers, a small bag was revealed hanging from them. Rei thought she had recognized it, until she realized-
"Hey, that's mine," she exclaimed upon emptily clutching around her neck for the small sack where she kept her badges. "You little punk!" She lunged forward, but the kid cartwheeled off to the side.
After bubbly laughter he spoke, "If 'ou want it back, 'ou're gonna hafta -" Rei whipped out her pistol, aiming it dead at him. The youth froze, not even showing fear. He just froze. She had no intention of shooting him, but she figured it might scare him off or, at least, get him to wet himself. None of this happened, as he only smiled bigger. "Hee hee, 'ou're funny. Let's play!" Speedily, the ragamuffin skipped off. Cursing, she sped after him.
The incessantly giggling brat always managed to stay just out of Rei's reach as the sugar loaded freak glided over the terrain without tire. Rei, however, had the burden of weeks worth of travel weighing her down. Like a rabbit, his path weaved and took sharp curves, gaining him more lead. Finally, he approached a large pile of rocks and debris and scurried to the top of it, where he bobbed to and fro. Eventually, a panting Rei caught up to him. She had no idea how the child ascended the towering mass, and was not about to attempt it in her state. She stared up at him, hatefully, eclipsed against the sun so that all of him was shadow but his shiny lens and wide grin.
"Come on, little guy, come down here," she poorly coaxed. "You could get hurt up there and fall," after which, she uttered under her breath, "which would only give me the opportunity to hurt you even more, and you don't want getting hurt twice, now do you?"
"Ah hafe good hearin'," the squirt grinned sweetly. Rei scowled. "Ah dunno why 'ou want this li'l bag sooo much, bu' if 'ou weally want it, 'ou could... hmm..." He dangled into deep thought, or as deep as his absent mind could carry him, commonly interrupted by him rolling around and hand stands. He ultimately wound up plopping down in the same spot where he began with a raised finger. "Ah know!" he said with much excitement. "'ou can play me fo' 'em! Play with Rick!"
"Play?" She inquired, "Play what, my dear?" while, internally, she only thought "Oh, give me a break." He dropped his sack and rummaged through it. He emerged with his hands full of the fruitiest colored and tackiest Monster Balls anyone has ever seen. "Jacks?" Rei questioned, completely discombobulated?"
"No, silly girl. We'll hafe us a Monster Battle!" he screamed, ending in a dynamic note. "Wee!" She stared, with gaping maw, at the jumping dolt, beginning to feel sorry for his pets until she remember how much of a jerk he was.
"Okay, little guy, I'll play with you." She tossed out a growing orb from which emerged her rancid flora. "But no backing out of our deal, okay? We see this thing through and to the winner goes the spoils."
"Yippee! Play!" the lad bounced and cheered as he kicked down one of his horribly decorated vessels. "Let's go, Hop-hop!" Rei squatted down low to get a good, level view at the little rookie the sucker was sending out against her champion. As it materialized, she found herself staring at toes. Cranking her neck back higher and higher still, she unknowingly fell flat on her back before it was in full view. A monstrous figure, covered in thick, plated armor, stomped the ground in aimless rage. The sun's rays glistened on its bared fangs and drool as its eyes menacingly scoped the terrain for foes. Spotting the Vileplume, its arms dropped to shield its young as it broke into full charge. Rei was regretting having not taken the shot before.
The rampaging Kangaskhan barreled down upon Poppy, who readied for her arrival. Pulling off one of his withered leaves, the weed hurled the foliage blade. Spinning towards its target, the leaf idly bounced off Hop-hop's knee. Sweat poured from him as it gazed wide eyed at the on coming beast as she trampled over him. Rei had made sure to get far from the rampant behemoth's paths ahead of time and squatted by her flattened flower. With "x"ed eyes, its feet shifted into their natural root shape, boring into the ground and spread out its solar receptors, drawing nutrients and energy to revitalize himself.
"Okay, I won't lie to you" she sighed, "that was pretty pathetic." The plant whined.
"You naive trollop, 'tis this your skill in its entirety?" a defiant voice boomed from above. The source oddly fell from atop the peak. "That mockery of a feeble attempt was quite humorous, indeed," the insults poured from his mouth in a refined air of stuffy couth.
"You lousy tird!" the girl accused. "You've been lying to me this entire time. Why I oughtta-"
"Tsk, tsk, love," he smirk, waving his finger in a confident fashion, "I have never spoken a word to you that could not be taken to the fullest truth. Now anything that you assumed for yourself, well, I cannot be to blame for your lacking judgement, now can I? Hmm?" It was bizarre how quickly his sweet pixie's grin grew into a sinister devil's smile.
"It was still an underhanded deception, you fink." He only shrugged in his defense.
"That matter aside, you made it clear before the start of the match that both contestant would, in fact, have to see the bout through until its completion, correct." Rei had heard the thundering of the not-so-lovable Hop-hop in advance and knew to remove her form from the battlefield. Poppy spewed a smoldering wad of acidic fluid at the parent's bellow. The pouched infant glared wide eyed at the oncoming assault, and knew no better than to applaud its approach. Shielding her progeny, the mother took the full load of burning liquid on her one arm while winding up the spare for the devastating that uprooted the Vileplume and sailed it crashing into the bluff. Raising from her evasive crouch, the flower peeled off the face and fell into Rei's arms completely spaced out.
His childish balls all lined up in a row, Rick flicked one at the start of the line off the crag tower with a sickening adorable chortle in the maiden's general direction. When the monstrosity contained within emerged, its presence along tore cracks in the earth. Its capacity at using effort to do so wrenched the mind. Donned in full plate mail, the horned tyrant bellowed ferociously as its sights set on the now made distressed damsel.
"I am so ruing that I didn't blast a hole through your face when I had the chance, you freaking, little punk." He scoffed haughtily. Fleeing to a new place, she dropped off a sphere of her own. As the hulk passed over her former path, grappling tendrils swarmed about the Aggron, pulling it to the ground with a clash. As the skull capped warrior wrestled with the gelatinous mass, a battle hungry Kangaskhan sneaked up from behind, its jaws thirsting for blood. As she drew back, her muscles clinched for the deadly blow, her flesh did clasp tight uncontrollable. She grunted in protest as she spotted sparkling pollen floating down from above. The fragrant weed, disoriented but not discontinued, staggered to his feet before bracing against the rock face. Her angry pleas, while unintentional, alerted the struggling Tentacruel of her proximity. Firing water cannons into the ground, Squishy propelled himself and his captive skyward. At the apex of ascension, he released the brute and blasted it back to earth with terrible force. Its shadow grew larger over the immobilized Hop-hop, who could only helplessly watch the dropping fiend come crashing down.
"Put a hole in my skull, huh?" Rick hissed. "Is that how you solve everything? Killing?" He flicked another one of this rainbow orbs onto the field. As the four legged fusion emerged, he continued his speech. "Will you make me like the ones in your book? A casualty in your plight? Is a life that meaningless to you? You would take one for... for... this?" He examined the bag while the steel crawler sought out the enemy. "Why, it does not seem valuable to me in the slightest."
"It may not seem like much," Rei replied, fishing through her pockets for more support, "but I need that 'worthless' thing to go on." Stirring after its impact, the iron laden beast tried pulling itself from the freshly made, messy crater, but Poppy pranced about the newly forged pit, leaving blooming sprouts in his step and blossom petals in the air, striking Aggron back down each time it attempted to remove itself from the hole. Annoyed, it mashed its fist into the wall of the chasm, knocking the teetering plant over the edge. Bounding out, it slammed onto the ground, up-turning massive pieces of land. Squishy and the new arrival, Cinder, exchanged panicked glances. Quick to decide, the jellyfish chose to go after the Metagross. Greatly disappointed, the Flareon found no solace when he turned back to find the metallic behemoth single-handedly unearthing a gigantic boulder headed in his direction.
The aquatic creature faced off the iron titan. Preparing, he shielded himself as the artificial brain launched its mind at him. The psychic force rebounded twofold, knocking the assaulter clear into the sky. Righting itself midair, the alloy scuttler levitated safely back to the ground. With vile intent gleaming in its eyes, it raised a single limb upward before throwing down at Squishy. Bracing for the impact of another mental onslaught, he rematerialized the magic barrier, but its time passed without use. Opening an clinched eye, the Tentacruel found its enemy in the same position as when he left it: completely still with its arm held out. Without having time to contemplate this awkward happening, he was alerted by a loud whistle from the heavens. Unable to even gawk at his doom send, the meteor collided into the earth with himself between the two.
"And this is worth people's lives?" he queried, a kindling wrath burning in his voice, as another multicolored ball entered the field. A sullen troglodyte bearing a golden ring on its belly, raged by its rousing, strove to appease its wrath on anything it could find. Goopy, slipped into battle unnoticed, crept around the demented teddy bear's ankles, holding it fast before spraying it with toxic sludge. Amidst its agony, the grizzly lashed out at the blob with its razor tipped claws, that lacked the capacity to effectively rend the Muk's doughy body.
"Anyone who stands in your way shall be deemed forfeit?" the youth continued inquiring. Dodging rock after rock, the Aggron never ceased in its volley against the scarlet beast. In one of his evasive maneuvers, Cinder spotted his occupied, filthy comrade in need of assistance as the Metagross made its way toward the two feuding monsters. Summoning all his firepower, the Flareon's form was set ablaze. Completely draining his reserve, a pillar of fire clashed against an impending stone, boring a shaft through it, reducing it to molten rock. Burning with the force of a sun, the blue flame melted anything thrown in its path, including the path it traveled over.
The fire spread to the iron ogre, but the crimson hound was unable to witness the outcome. Still smoking from the previous attack, he charged to intercept the mindful ore. Unable to draw up as mighty of a flame, his weakened arsenal still managed to fend off the Metagross while alarming Goopy at the same time. The slime swelled his head, expanding it to an insanely large proportion until finally erupting in a gargantuan, fiery explosion. Cast into the heavens unharmed by the force, Cinder gazed downward to spot the Aggron still active amongst a wide plane of scorched wasteland. Poising himself, the Flareon protruded his frizzy tail to a fine point, solidifying it until like a sword. Falling like an arrow, it pierced through the horned giant's plating, shattering rock and steel alike.
"Even," the lad added to his question of the girl, "me?"
"Yes!" she violently screamed back at Rick with inconceived resentment. All of the sounds of battle immediately fell silent behind her.
"I thought you wanted to help us..." The bag slipped from his fingers, skipping off the rock wall. Rei dove to catch before any of its contents could be scattered and lost among the thicket and cracks in the structure.
"Thanks a lot, kiddo, but I don't get why you called them off or -" She gazed upward, to the child's former location, only to find it abandoned. "- or what ... you ... meant..." Turning about, all of her monster stood alone sharing the same confused look on their faces she had. All of them, the boy and his insanely large abominations, were gone without a trace. She returned the neck-sac to its original location and reclaimed her creatures. Rei tried to get back on track and to her mission, chalking this experience up as "just one of those things." Deep down inside, however, she knew what he works told her. She just did not want to face it.
