Thoughts from a Random Mind
[Y'know, I had something very witty and ironic to say today...but since I've completely forgotten it, I'll just link to Welcome to Kevin's Mind and leave said witty sarcasm to him.
Besides, I have a very hard time being sarcastic when my toenails are pink... *sweatdrop*
On a side note. Ever read A Separate Peace by John Knowles? You should. And then you should go watch Yu-Gi-Oh! for a few days and learn about hikaris and yamis. And then you should go listen to my English teacher. And then you should try to truthfully tell me that Finny and Gene aren't either gay, yami/hikari, or both. Although, if they're yami and hikari, I think they'd be more like Marik and Malik than the other pairs (Yami and Yuugi, and Ryou and Bakura)...after all, they're both essentially good, just with wide bad streaks...Hm. Interesting thought. Would be a fun essay to write, though... *imagines self turning in an essay to her english teacher on how ASP is like an anime* Oh, yeah, that'd go over well.]
Betrayal (cont'd)
"Char!"
"Piiipikachu..."
"Chaaaaaaaaaaaaaar!!!"
"What in the world has Pikachu so riled - oh," Misty said, turning and recognizing the problem at once.
"That's Charizard!" Brock exclaimed. "What the hell? Where did it come from?"
"Not important right now," Misty said with gritted teeth, hand flying to her PokeBalls. "Between you and me we can probably take it out before - "
"Right," Brock cut her off, his hand going to his own PokeBalls. "Onix!"
Ash, meanwhile, was not taking such drastic measures. His face had paled and was now drawn with painful memories; he stumbled backwards a few steps in shock.
"Pika!" The little mouse Pokemon leapt forward to land bristling on the ground before its master, perfectly willing to fight to defend Ash's life if necessary. Which it looked like it would be, as Charizard drew himself up for a Flamethrower.
"Charizard, stop that!" Twitch shouted, enraged. "What in flames do you think you're doing?!" Charizard cast a fierce glare at Ash before turning suddenly and winging off to the horizon. Turning back to Ash, the fire trainer's face softened. "You all right?"
"...I'm fine," Ash said flatly when his mind finally returned to the present. "I should go." He held out an arm to Pikachu, who scrambled up and reclaimed his usual perch on the teen's shoulder. Ash turned and nearly fled back down the trail.
"What was up with that?" Twitch asked, watching his retreating back. "Is he scared of fire pokemon or something?"
"Long story," Brock said, coming up behind her. "Onix, return."
"You too, Polywhorl, Staryu," Misty said, recalling her own pokemon. Twitch glanced at them in surprise.
"Why'd you get them out?"
Misty's face turned cold. "We were going to use them to take down that Charizard," she said in a voice just as flat as Ash's had been.
"But why?"
"Because it's tried to kill Ash once before, and there's no guarantee it won't try again." Brock had adopted an identical tone.
"But - Charizard was Ash's Pokemon, wasn't it? It's always going on about what a great trainer Ash was, saying I'm doing everything wrong and that I should do it more like Ash did," Twitch said. "There's no way it hates Ash."
"Well, it does. Come on, we'd better go make sure he's all right - it owuld be just like him to fall down some cliff or something."
Which, of course, is exactly what Ash had done.
"Piiiiiiiiiiiiiikaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"
"I know, I know!" Ash shouted, fighting down the feeling of nausea that always came with free-fall. "But yell at me later, okay? Tododyle, I choose you!" The faithful water Pokemon appeared, cheerful as always, dancing in midair. "No time for that now, just aim your Watergun at the ground!" Tododyle complied. With Ash's arms wrapped around Tododyle and Pikachu gripping the master's jacket with its sharp claws, the trio's frighteningly rapid descent slowed and was finally brought under control.
"Good job," Ash said, shaking his head to clear it. Tododyle had done extremely well, dropping them only ten or so feet from the ground; a little fall like that was nothing. "Go ahead and return - I think you're gonna need all the rest you can get. Why does this always happen to me?" His gaze found its way to the very top of the cliff; it was several hundred feet at the least, and no easy climb.
"Pika, pikapika piii," Pikachu chattered angrily.
"Look, Pikachu, I said I'm sorry," Ash sighed. "I know I should watch where I'm going more closely. Especially in the middle of an unfamiliar forest like this. But how was I supposed to know there was a cliff there? Besides, you weren't paying any more attention than I was."
"Pika!"
Ash grinned. "Deny it all you want, you know it's true. But what I said earlier still goes. Survive now, yell later. Besides. what I want to know is, where did that cliff come from? It wasn't there when we came by earlier, I know that."
Now Pikachu just looked worried. He chittered rapidly in Pokemon.
//Don't understand. Master is observant - master knows how to see cliffs. Master has plenty of practice at that,// he added as an afterthought, turning a scornful look on said trainer. //But master is right - this one was not here earlier. And...don't know, it smells different. Strange. Not normal.//
It was Ash's turn to look worried, and he cast a glance at the sky, where he found the answer. "Not normal, you say? Could those rainclouds be the problem?"
High overhead, thick clouds crowded in on each other, jostling for the best position. Lightning cracked through the sky and a huge roll of thunder rent the air. But the concerning part was not the fact that there was a storm - the Master above knew they had been through enough of those to not be bothered by them anymore - it was the fact that the clouds were brilliant green and the lightning was black.
//...//
"I think 'what the hell' just about covers it," Ash muttered; Pikachu agreed.
The hairs on the back of Ash's neck raised, and a chill chased itself up and down his spine. He turned slowly.
"You again."
"Char...."
***
"Where could they be?" Misty asked for the seventh time. "We've combed this entire forest!"
Brock shook his head in confusion. "Misty's right, we've looked everywhere. It's like they just disappeared."
"I don't understand it either," Twitch said, but her voice was less than convincing. The brunette and the redhead rounded on her instantly.
"What is it?"
"Well...there is a legend about this place...but it's all just a story," she said hastily, embarassed that she even brought up the point. Misty and Brock exchanged a glance. They had run across - and lived through - enough "legends" to know that they were generally at least based in fact.
"Come on, tell us," Brock urged. "What's this legend about?"
"People around here say that sometimes, travellers with strong emotions just...disappear in here," she said. "A long time ago, this forest belonged to the psychic pokemon. They're all gone now, wiped out by the first human settlers, but their presence remains strong in the deeper parts of the woods - a troubled enough person may actually find himself transported inside his own mind, and never know it. They generally turn up again, once they've faced their problem, but..." Her voice trailed off.
"But?"
"The mind - human or Pokemon - is the most dangerous place possible," Twitch said softly. "A lot of people can't face their fears. They get crushed by their own mind."
Random Quote of the Day:
The most merciful thing in the world . . . is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents.
- H. P. Lovecraft
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