Chapter 6 - Tuesdays, Am I Right?

Argh I'm so bored, I'd rather go back to work then listen to this conversation right now. I'm joking of course because I'm not getting paid but you get the gesture. Wait, did I get sent to this world after working a huge shift? Ah come on man, do a bro a favour and send him to a new world BEFORE going to work.

Right now I'm chilling back on the couches, Scorbunny and Pachirisu are next to me on either side talking about various subjects. I just completely zoned out when they started talking about flowers or something. Work all day to listen to Pokémon talk about boring crap. Tuesdays, am I right?

Ever since I made friends with Scorbunny, neither Scorbunny nor Pachirisu will leave my side. I think it might be something about me scarring Nidoran with just a glance. Sometimes it's better to thrash someone to get them off your back.

Oh hey Vulpix has come into the lounge room, she usually doesn't hang out in the same room as me. She does sometimes if I'm with Tweedle dee and Tweedle dumb here, you decide who is who.

Vulpix looks towards me, she lowers her head and eyes to the floor as she makes her way to the couch on the opposite side to us. She sits down, actively listening to the other 2 talk about random crap. I in return just completely zone out again. This time on how I miss the sweet moments of a hard day's work to then have a cold alcoholic beverage while playing a game. They don't even have fizzy drinks! Like hello? Ever heard of carbonation?-

"…Yeah my favourite hero in the guild is Incineroar! He's the coolest!" Scorbunny enthusiastically declared.

-Personally I prefer a good hard scotch with some…wait what? hero? Guild? Oh this sounds interesting, better tune my ears to this conversation now, could be interesting.

"With how he saved the town from a raging Tyranator all alone, it's no wonder he's earned the heroes badge!" Scorbunny continued now standing on the couch. "He's the coolest and strongest of them all!"

"Humph I think Raichu is cooler, he's smaller than the others but he's still kicking all sorts of butts. He defeated a Red Gyarados that wanted to sink a fleet of transport ships! I hope one day to be a hero like that too." Pachirisu said, somewhat with dreamy eyes. Oh someone's got a little crush, ah youth.

"Who's your favourite hero Ace?" Pachirisu asked me.

"Yeah yeah, who?" Scorbunny joined in. I noticed Vulpix listening in extra attentively to this question.

"Erm, to be honest I didn't even know a guild existed till just right now. Heroes for that matter too. Guess it would make sense for them to exist, are they important or something?" I responded.

"Well you see-" Pachirisu who was suddenly cut off said.

"WHAT!? How do you not know of them? They are the pillar that keeps us above the brink of destruction, the Order amongst the chaotic nature of the mystery dungeons. They are what every adventurer dreams to be. They are…" Vulpix slowed her passionate monologue after realising we are all looking at her with a shocked expression. I'd imagine if she didn't have fur, her face would be extremely red.

She sinks down into the couch, using her paws to try in vain to hide her existence from this embarrassing situation. It was, in a word, adorable.

"So it does talk." I said after a second of pure silence.

I'm then punched by Pachirisu on my shoulder. rude much.

"So is it a guild dedicated to creating heroes?" I asked, continuing the conversation forward/

"Yes and no. While they do have heroes that are associated with their guilds and try to encourage brave actions, they offer more services to others. Like fixing houses, escorting through Mystery dungeons and just simply exploring to map out areas. There is more to it than that though." Pachirisu explained.

"Hmm interesting." I hummed to myself while thinking about the concept.

I mean it's a real life fantasy dream! Guilds, adventures and heroes. But would I go for that lifestyle if I escaped from this place? I would have jumped at the chance, but I'm not sure anymore. Every time I help others, something bad ends up happening to me.

"Wait, are you interested in joining the guild?" Scorbunny inquired with big curious eyes beaming up at me.

"I thought about it once before but I'm not too sure anymore. Seems like too much responsibility for nothing, you help others and in return you get hurt." I responded.

"That's a cold way of thinking about it."

I shrugged. Feeling how I've turned the conversation a bit grimmer than expected, I decided to shift it. "What would it take to become a hero anyway? I'd imagine it's not as simple as boop, I'm a hero now."

"You fight bad guys." Scorbunny jumped up again saying.

"What? No, you help others, that's what it takes!" Pachirisu argued.

"No, it's beating up all the bad guys!"

"No, it's about saving others!"

…..

This back and forth happens several more times. They continued to get more loud, arguing over me. Before I could tell them to shut it my ears are right there someone beats me to the punch.

….

"Noooo!" A sudden outburst shuts up the other 2, we all look to its source, Vulpix who is standing up with an annoyed expression. "It's about putting others above yourself in a self righteous sacrifice. You must stand as a pillar of courage for others. A pure beacon of light, no matter how dark a situation would get. A bastion of hope for those in an unhopeful situation. While, yes they beat up bad guys and save others, they must be so much more than that. A hero in a word is the pure definition of a benevolent being." Vu;pix once done with her speech continues to stare at us. For some reason focused on me.

"Erm, Are you a fan of heroes?" I asked Vulpix.

I think she wanted to continue talking but her timidness got the better of her, as her tails and ears lowered. She then hopped off the couch and very quickly left the lounge area.

"Was it something I said?" I said out loud. This made the others chuckle as they shook their heads in exasperation.

What was that about though. I wondered to myself.

(AT THE GUILD) (POV - INCINEROAR)

"I just don't get it, where are they? They have to have a base of operation somewhere. Captures need a place to store the Pokémon they abduct at the very least. Especially if they have taken 20 plus Pokémon so quickly. What are they doing with them?" I say to myself.

I sit back on my large chair staring at the large map of the lands I had put up. I'm currently held up in my own dedicated office. It's a nice office space all things considered. It's housed with a big chair I'm sitting in, my wall map, some plants, a table for my paper work if I ever get some and a nice sofa for guests. I told the guild master it was too much but she insisted saying because I'm a hero or something. We should be using it for other things but oh well, might as well put it to good use to help others.

The map I'm staring at is well detailed, it took months to create a map detailed enough. This is of course a copy of the original. If only those pesky mystery dungeons would stop changing their layouts. It's quite hard to map a location that is changing all the time. After staring at the map for 5 minutes with nothing coming to mind I threw my hands down in great frustration, threatening to break my arm support. I hopped up from my chair, hoping the new angle would give me an idea or something.

"I will find you all, don't worry. Help is coming, but I need something, a clue no matter how small it is. If only someone would miraculously show up with one…"

BANG BANG BANG

The door behind me suddenly is assaulted with knockings. Who could that be? I'm trying to think here.

"Hero Incineroar, Hero Incineroar are you in there?!" A muffled voice asked in a tone of desperation.

"Yes, I'm here to come in." I responded.

The door is slammed open along with the figure tumbling across the floor. The figure got up quickly with a salute.

Ah it is a young Tyrogue always full of energy.

I sigh "you don't have to salute me Tyrogue."

"Sorry sir!" Tyrogue saluted again. Oh well I respect the Moxy anyway.

"Now what is it that you basically had to break down my door to tell me?"

"AH! Yes! Sir we found a bunch of Pokémon from the Ever Change Woods mystery dungeon. They are saying they escaped capture from the bandits that match the description of the ones we are hunting. One says they know where their base is!"

"Take me to them immediately!" I say with great enthusiasm.

"Yes sir!" He salutes again.

Finally a clue I've been desperately needing. Don't worry everyone, help is on its way.

(ME)

I don't know how much more of this I can take. I think it's Thursday, no wait it's Wednesday. Man it's getting hard to keep track on what day it is. No one here keeps track the way we do, they use other names for the weekdays. Same 7 days cycle, so that's nice. I've just got to last 3 more days without getting 2 more demerits. I can do that, but man Machoke is making it tough. Like today instead of a normal pickaxe for mining I was forced to use one twice as heavy. I'm just glad for these moments alone on the couch. Gives me time to unwind.

"Are you alright Ace? You seem more out of it than usual?" Scorbunny asked, suddenly appearing next to me.

When did he get there? "yeah I'm alright, just a bit tired, is all." I responded.

"Are you sure?" Pachirisu asked this time.

Pachirisu too? Man, I must be losing my senses with how tired I am, I really need a vacation. Heh yeah right.

"Yeah, I'm sure. I-I just need some fresh air. I'll be back soon."

"Will you be alright alone?"

"Yes, I'll be alright." I begin to leave but before I'm gone I turn back around. "You know what if I'm not back in 3 hours, send a search party for me." I sarcastically responded. I don't think Scorbunny understood since he responded with an enthusiastic "Ok!" as I left the building.

Looking up while outside the sun is still hanging around, so it will be a couple of hours before curfew. I move to my outdoors sun soaking spot, one of the only few places with grass left, I get comfy, lay down and begin to sunbathe.

You really learn to appreciate these moments, the tickling of the grass on your body, the feeling of a fresh breeze on your face and the gentle warmth of the sun. I feel a sense of sadness building up inside, reminding me of the freedom I no longer possess. Why am I here, am I being punished for something I did? If I tried to make it work with my limited family would I be here? Do they even care that I'm gone? It's moments like these I really miss my Grandpa, he always knew what to cheer me up.

I feel a tear fall down my face. No no I can't cry, not now, not here. Machoke could appear at any moment, I can't show him I'm breaking. That's all I have left, my will and if I lose that what do I have left? I grit my teeth and harden my mind, looking around for anything to distract me from the ever looming sense of dread that keeps hanging around me.

After looking around I finally found something to distract my attention, Vulpix is leaving the house. I wonder what she would be doing at this time. She does periodically leave the house but I never seem to notice where she goes. She seems to be heading to the side of the house. Huh i didn't know there was enough space to do that, you learn something new everyday.

I feel the grass tickly me once again. I look down to it. No matter how many times I look at it, I can't get used to the saturation of the grass. The world looks the same but more colourful. It's jarring. I looked up again to notice Nidoran and his crew. Nidoran looks to his left then to the right before heading to the side of the house to where Vulpix went to just a moment ago. Uh oh this means trouble. That group has been terrorising everyone as of recently. They do try to mess with me, but since that smack down they generally tend to avoid me.

I hoped up, making my way over towards them. Once I arrive at the house, I move the edge of the wall so I'm out of sight around the corner to them. I don't want to intervene if I don't want to, for all I know they are…playing cards? Wishful thinking is a powerful thing. Wait, why do I care what they do to Vulpix? I'm not a good soul, so I don't care.

I begin to move away but after hearing them, I move back to listening.

"...So, have you considered our offer? You wouldn't have to worry about that scary Bulbasaur anymore. All you would have to do is well...let's say 'assist' him into getting a couple of demerits. He will then get sent to the correction zone, and get taught some manners. As a bonus if you assist us in this, Machoke is even willing to give us some leniency with our demerits and workload! It's really a win-win situation if you think about it. So what say you Vulpix, will you assist us in putting Bulbausr in his place?

"I….I-it wouldn't be right. Even though he's scary, that doesn't mean he deserves to get punished." I had to really strain myself to hear Vulpix's voice, man she's so quiet. You are making it hard to eavesdrop.

"Right? We are giving a bad Pokémon the punishment he deserves! How is that not right?"

"W-well it's…c-cowardly a hero wouldn't-"

"Cowardly..COWARDLY!" A notable pause is taken, maybe he took a breath? "Fine then if i can't reason with you I'll have to do it the old fashion way. If you don't help Bulbasaur get more demerits, I will make your life a living misery here. It's you or him."

"Then I chose him, I won't hurt others for you. D-do your w-w-worst. A hero would stand up to bullies like you, so that's what I'll do!" Her once timid voice is now a thing of pure confidence.

I won't lie, that hit something deep down inside me. I felt like crying. I mean no one has ever been willing to sacrifice themselves for me. She's reminding me of my old friend. I can't let her do this, I can't leave now. I have to help her!

"Fine, then let's show you what it means to hurt." Nidoran snarled.

"I could say the same thing to you Nidoran!" I shouted after walking around the corner.

"What are you doing here? This doesn't concern you, leave now or you will be hurt too." Nidoran threatened.

"Then bring it. I've beaten you before, I sure as hell do it again." I countered.

"Fine then, instead of one weakling, I guess we will have to deal with 2. Helioptile, you deal with Vulpix, the rest of you are helping me take this weakling down." He ordered.

"Ha! Weakling? I destroyed you with one attack. What makes you think this will be any different?" I taunted.

"Because this time I'm not letting my guard down around you. Go initiate the flying ball of doom!"

"Yes sir!" Machop and Pansage said in unisons. They both ran to Nidoran, Pansage on the front and Machop to the rear. They then lifted him effortlessly, well a little struggle for Pansage, since he isn't a little ball of muscle like Machop. They then, i shit you not, launched Nidoran towards me. I was too dumbfounded to move while they set this up. If they were stronger I reckon I would've gotten hit by it. I dodged to the side, allowing Nidoran to fly past me.

With a Ploof he landed behind me. "Little work needed on speed but it worked out non the less."

"Ha what do you mean worked out, you ate dirt like a playboy eats puMMFFF" I'm suddenly launched forwards. Something hit me from the back and it hit me good. I look back, yep it was Machop who hit me. He just stood at the side of the house with a shit eating grin. I'm now out into a nice clear opening in front of the house. They begin to flank me now since all my sides are exposed.

I stand up, readying myself for an attack. I keep moving my head side to side, refreshing my enemies positions with each head swing interval. In Front of me is Nidoran, at 5 o'clock is Machop and at 9 clock is Pansage. We stare at each other waiting for the other to make the 1st move.

After a hot second of waiting Nidoran's horn lights up. He then charges in for an attack, he's too slow however as i dodged to my right. I shot my vines at the Machop who looked like he was about to attack. He didn't expect this instant reaction since he flinched as the vine whipped him backwards.

Pansage and Nidoran decide that charging in alone sucks, so they both are now rushing me.

I hyper focused too hard on Nidoran since a green vine smacked me on the top of my head. It didn't hurt, barely a scratch but it did distract me for a second.

I'm just able to dodge Nidoran's' now glowing purple horn. My landing wasn't perfect leaving me off balance, with no chance to dodge the now approaching Machop. He delivers a nice painful looking Low kick to my right side, sending me forwards to the ground. Oh yeah that hurt.

As I tried to get my bearings again Pansage took advantage of my weakened situation to…lick me? Wait crap that's an actual move. It felt like someone getting the roughest sandpaper and rubbing against you. Hurts like hell the bottom line is. I moved my vine to the Pansage who was constantly licking me. I grabbed him by the throat, squeezed really tight then with some energy from my plant reserves I Yeet him away. He rolls on the floor but recovers quickly.

I hop up from the ground, Nidoran is once again going for another glowing horn attack. I brace myself, as I have a plan. Tank the damage Mk2. Now what makes this plan a better version is the inclusion of a new move I discovered by accident. You see, I needed more energy really bad since I wasn't allowed outside one day at all. So by accident I made a seed that attached itself to a nearby Geodude. Luckily the others ignored his whaling screams as he got the seed of. The energy he leaked was tasty though.

As he charged at me, I lowered myself bracing myself for impact. While he was making his way over to me I was reading my vines, one grabbing a vine full of seeds in my plant, while the other was waiting for the perfect time to strike.

Yes come my little fly, come to my spider web. Wait hold on, isn't Nidoran a poison type? Then wouldn't the glowing purple horn make it…poison sting! Oh crap I may have miscalculated a teensy bit.

Now that Nidoran is way too close to dodge I commit to my plan. I mean head on as his horn pricked my skin, leaking poison. Activating my trap, I wrap my outside vine around his legs, while the other as quickly as possible deposits all the seeds I'm able to muster. He struggled madly, trying to break free from my grip. I'm able to deposit 7 seeds to Nidoran before I'm forced to back away by the others approaching.

So here's a no brainer, being poisoned sucks. No like really sucks, this feels like something is trying to slow me down while being extremely painful. Man, weaknesses suck the big one, unless it's for enemies, then they rule.

Something catches my attention for a split second and that's Vulpix and Helioptile. They aren't doing anything, just kinda awkwardly standing near each other. Guess both don't want to fight. Oh an energy rush, guess the seeds are doing their jobs.

"Get them off me! Hurry up!" Nidoran ordered the nearby Machop.

Machop quickly gets into gear, he's able to remove 1 before a vine comes rocketing to his face, making a satisfying 'Crack' as the whip move connects. He turns away from the damage in pain. I feel a refreshing wave of energy enter me again. Strange though it kinda feels like there should be more, kinda like sucking a drink through a straw but the drink is super thick. Must be the weakness, thing.

"Sneak attack!" I hear behind me.

I feel something landing heavily on my back. I look up just able to get a glance of his face. He had a look of pure sadistic excitement before brandishing what little of claws he had.

Left then right he brings his tiny claws down on my oversized head. Over and over, I think some of the strikes are drawing blood.

I jump around trying to shake off my attacker. Every time I'm attacked I feel a refreshing wave course to me. So I'm getting attacked by Pansage, but healing from Nidoran. The healing is losing out though, if this keeps up I'm going to be in real danger. I swipe at him with my vine trying to get any sort of grip to throw him off me, he's somehow able to dodge it while still being on my back. Man fury swipes sucks. Something I did notice is that the energy I was relying on was starting to lessen in the amount received. I look over to my snack to see Machop removing seeds from Nidoran.

"Oh no you don't!" I yell in great pain from this freaking Pansage's relentless swiping.

I launch both my vines in 2 different directions towards Machop. Machop seems to have wised up from my previous smacking, since he dodged the vine that beelined it towards him. However he didn't take note of the other one since it moved to where he dodged, wrapping him in it. Before he can do anything about it, I use a great chunk of reserve energy, yanking Machop towards my direction. Or to be more specific to the Pansage, still attacking my head.

"Eeep!" I hear Pansage before Machop is sent head 1st into my attacker. It's successful in getting him off my back. Now that Pansage has stopped with his attack I'm able to relish in what little energy I'm still getting from Nidoran's. I jump back away from the trio, giving me some much needed space to think about my next move.

A great pain surged through me though, making me wince by how sudden and sharp it was.

"Argh, guess that poison is doing more harm than I thought. I need to wrap this up now." I say out loud to myself.

Nidoran eyes narrowed, focusing sharp charges at me again. I send my vine over to his 2 left legs..wait what? Oh great, I'm seeing doubles. I missed my mark, horrible I might add.

I go again, this time it connects, whipping him, drawing a little blood as a result. Nidoran winced in pain with his 2 mouths. Annoyingly he continued to charge at me. I sent both vines at him, one connecting a whip action to his left cheek and the other to his chest area, but nonetheless he persevered onwards to me. I tried to back away but I'm too disorientated to move.

Nidoran once close enough, brandished his small buck teeth and began to peck at me. I winced at this extremely painful action. I try to do anything to defend myself but I'm sent to the floor. I open my eyes to see a gleeful Machop, he must've kicked me again. Now that I'm nice and vulnerable, Nidoran presses the advantage with his horn glowing white this time. With his horn glowing white he prodded me, it hurts my god it hurts.

Over and over he did this, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 times dam maximum fury swipes! I don't know when I closed my eyes but when I opened my watery filled eyes I could make out his smug smile. He says something but all I could hear is a fuzzy sound. I try to get up but my body isn't having it at all. No, I'm not done yet, I can still fight! I just need my legs to move already.

My vision begins to fuzz as I strain myself to move. I try to sap into any reserve energies i may have, but I can't find any. Guess I lost this fight. I start to feel fatigue threatening to take me to sleep. As I start to lose my consciousness I'm instead brought back to focus by a whimpering noise.

I open my blurry, tear filled eyes. What focus I'm able to restore I can see Vulpix with a terrified expression. But instead of a general fear it's one that knows something bad is coming. I blink my eyes. Nidoran and his crew are walking over to the cowering Vulpix.

'No'

I still can't hear anything, besides for the buzzing noise I hate so much.

'Get up'

They slowly keep on approaching Vulpix. The scared little fox Pokémon. The Pokémon who judged me to be a scary villain. The Pokémon who i know nothing about at all. The Pokémon who was willing to sacrifice herself for me.

A deep rage begins to form inside of me. They dare hurt someone who is willing to take a hit for me?

'SAVE HER'

I focus on this rage feeling bubbling inside me, I bring out to the forefront of my mind. I then begin to bend it around me. Once it has completely engulfed me I can feel something changing about me. With this new feeling I begin to draw in the sun's energy. I sucked and sucked like someone's life depended on it. I don't feel right, I feel wrong but I keep going anyway. Once I'm filled to the absolute brim with energy I begin to swirl it around inside of me, concentrating on it.

'BE A HERO AND SAVE HER'

My closed eyes shoot open, I'm standing. When did I stand up? Who cares? I spot my targets who are almost at Vulpix. I bring the energy to the tip of my plant, hold then fire it. A brilliant white beam of pure energy roars out of my plant, beaming straight toward the trio. With a loud 'BANG' the beam connects with the trio, leaving a cloud of ruffled up dust in its wake.

When the strong gust finally settled down, allowing the dust to move away, I spied the 3 assailants down on the scorched ground with burn marks across their forms. They don't get up but I do notice they are indeed breathing. So I'm not a murder today, thankfully.

"I..I did it…I beat them…I saved…" I murmured to myself before my vision began to forcefully disappear. I hit the floor with a thump. I'm able to open my eyes to catch a glimpse of a small orange figure running towards me. Sleep takes me away.

Where….am I? Hello? Why can't I say anything? What's going on? Hello, anyone? Anyone at all!?

I take a moment to try to make sense of things. I can move but i cant talk, this feeling It kinda feels like I'm confusion feeling begins to swap to one of panic, it feels like I'm begging to drown!

With any sense of direction remaining I swam in an upwards direction. I move my arms downwards trying my best to swim up as quickly as possible. The longer this goes on the more stress I can feel building up from my chest. "I need to breathe!" is all I can think. I don't know how long it will take to get to the top but I have to keep going, I'm not drowning today.

After what feels like an eternity of almost drowning I finally break through the surface of the water. However instead of the relief feeling from not drowning and getting air back in my lungs, I'm instead filled with the sensation of being suddenly upside down and falling. I fall for a couple of seconds, this time able to scream as I descend into the darkness. I hit the ground with and I hit it hard. Good thing my head broke my fall.

I sit up rubbing my head, wait rubbing? Arms?! Oh how i missed you, please don't ever leave me again. I look at my surroundings, I'm in a void area of sorts. There is nothing but nothingness for miles on. Strange though is I can tell there is a horizon, since the floor is a slight shade lighter than the darkness.

"Hello!? Anyone here? I don't know where I am!" nothing, no response. Not even an echo.

"Help them? Why would you help them? It's all for one after all! Maybe a beating will teach you." I turn around and a shadow of my dad is there looking down on me. He disappears into a puff of smoke.

What the, what's happening? Why was dad here and why did he say that?

"Why did you take me to that place? Did you want me to die? Was I not a good friend?" Another different voice speaks up from behind.

My blood turns icy cold after hearing it. I turn around slowly again. It's Chriss. Only he's ripped apart, all bloody with death looming over him. "Why did I think we were friends, why did you want me to die?" The bloodied body of Chriss spoke.

"No, I didn't want you to die! If I could go back and redo things…"

"But it did happen! Admit it you got me killed on purpose!"

I drop to my knees covering my ears. "No, no, no I didn't, I DIDN'T!" I look up from the ground seeing that he has disappeared.

"Calm down calm down this isn't real, this isn't real." I say to myself. Yes this has to be some sort of trick. I got back up to my feet, that vision struck me deep.

"AAAAh, AAAH dad please stop this hurts! Ah! Mum please make him stop please." Another voice spoke once again behind me.

I turn around once again, only this time it's me. My past self is getting beaten by Dad with a belt, I don't even recall doing anything bad. Mum who was sitting on her arm chair nearby just watched with a smile. She took a drink of her bottle.

"Come on Tell him to piss of, stand up for yourself." My drunkard mother spoke.

"But if I do that he will hit me again." My younger self said.

"Well you wont get dinner if you don't."

"P-piss off dad Smack ARGH!"

"Naughty naughty, You are now grounded for swearing. Go on hunny hit him again. We can't have that language in this house now can we?"

"No we cant." Dad replied with an evil grin.

The smoke figures fades away again.

I fall to all 4s trying desperately to calm my now rapid breathing. This isn't real, this isn't real. I keep telling myself, trying to calm myself down. My heart is beating a million beats per minute and I'm starting to sweat massively.

Another Voice spoke up from behind me again.

More bad memories keep recreating themselves one after another. I'm even re-enacting some of them. Unfortunately though If there was pain in that memory i felt it again. The pain only stopped after that memory stopped. After a good while they finally let up, giving me a break.

"No-No more, please, i can't take this anymore." I beg the void.

After a moment of trying to get my breathing under control. A noise then sends the coldest shiver that I swear I could feel in my soul.

Beep Beep Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee…. A high pitched beeping noise played. I refused to turn around this time, I couldn't. But no matter how long I sat there hunched up it wouldn't stop. The flatline noise keeps going on. I even tried covering my ears to no avail.

"Please don't, please don't make me turn around." I plead again to anyone.

After what felt like an eternity, I couldn't take that noise anymore. I slowly turn my head from a crouched position. It's my Grandpa on his death bed with his lifeless eyes. I just stared at them, hoping he would wake up, telling me it was all just a silly joke and that we could go back to how we used to be. But nothing, not one peep. Just those lifeless eyes staring back into mine.

A tear runs down my cheek as I feel myself breaking down. More tears follow afterwards.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHH" I screamed.

"Why are you doing this to me? What did I do to deserve this?!" I scream to the void, as I break down into sobs. I just continued to sit there, sobbing and screaming as multiple voices spoke up, one after the other in a constant barrage.

But something miraculous happened, the void vanished instantly, instead replaced by a nice blue sky with some clouds scattered around. The sky looks so beautiful, I feel so peaceful. Like someone washed what felt like a nightmare away. I fall backwards. Instead of a painful landing I'm instead enveloped in a soft, welcoming, watery surface. It honestly felt like the warmest cuddle imaginable.

It was as if for that moment, nothing mattered anymore. Everything felt peaceful and relaxing. I sink into the ocean, falling into the most peaceful sleep I've had in a very long time.

(P.O.V MACHOKE)

"I'm telling you I felt it!" Zoroark screamed at me

"And I'm telling you, you are insane." I replied to Zoroark. I always hated dealing with her shenanigans.

"But it was real, I'm telling you the truth, you muscle face."

"So you're telling me, you felt a wave of emotion, so strong that you could feel it all the way over here in our command HQ?" I replied with my arms now crossed.

"Yes, please Overseer, you have to believe me, I really did feel it!"

We both turned our attention to Overseer Corviknight who was listening quietly until now. We are currently in her office. It's simple in design, nothing really standing out besides for her chair, which is essentially just a metal pole with some soft leather wrapped around it, across the floor for her talons to grip on.

"Was this the same as the one you felt when the new recruits arrived?" The Overseer Asked.

"Yes, yes Overseer. Only this time I know I felt it."

Phooey all this talk about auras and special powers, the overseer doesn't believe this crap. She's far too smart to believe anything this scatter-brained moronic buffoon has to say.

"Hmm, this might be one of the things The Master told me to keep an eye out for. Could you locate this user of 'Aura' Zoroark?" The Overseer asked Zoroark.

"I believe I already know who it is, Mistress! I believe it's Bulbasaur." Zoroark answered with glee."

That Bulbasaur again! Ever since he freed the captures I've been on a peg lower than that Zoroark. If only I could have gotten Sneasel back at least. The Overseer had plans for her.

"Do we know of a way to confirm that he is definitely a user of Aura?" The Overseer asked.

Ah-ah let me think" Zoroark started smacking her head over and over. "OH! I got it! Stress is a great way to confirm if a user can use and control aura. I should know I discovered my sense of aura after my times with you Mistress! Oh how I miss our times together. How would you would correct me, hahaha!" Zoroark maniacally

"Indeed such times have long passed. We have to be extra careful about this. We need to find out if he is indeed a user or merely a being with a powerful aura. The Master would be very happy if we were to discover another user." The Overseer takes a moment to think "Machoke, I believe I found a way to redeem your past sin. I want you to discover if this Bulbasaur is a user of aura. You may use whatever method you find fit, but you may not mentally break him. We need him in working order, understand?"

A great joy filled my chest, I'm so excited I almost smiled in front of The Overseer. After a second to compose myself I reply "Of course Overseer, it would be my pleasure to serve and redeem myself." I still don't believe in this 'Aura' stuff but if I can, both redeem myself and punish Bulbausr in one sitting, then I'll do whatever I need to do about this aura stuff.

After some more talk and report I'm dismissed. I exited the room, once outside I couldn't help but plaster a big toothy smile on my face. Oh how I'm going to enjoy this my little friend, oh how I'm going to enjoy this indeed.

End Chapter 6