Pokemon - Solo's Strange Journey

Arceus that's-- "Huak." I think I'm going to puke.

"I warned you."

It's her head!

Wires and tubes attach to her skull. Her skin was boiled and blistered from the vacuum, and the boils popped open and bled over her face.

Her once-beautiful, silver hair has become matte and dry. Her eyelids dried up and pulled back to reveal the emptiness in her tortured eyes.

"Vacuum dried. Not a pretty sight."

"Y--" puke

~"Master!" Lopunny is immediately on me as I double over in disgust and expel my dinner.

"Stay focused!" She listens and returns her attention to Victor.

He did it. He was the fucking killer!

"It was easy, you know?"

Her eyes shrunk as well as if she was freeze-dried. I can't look at it!

"All I had to do, was tell her to turn around and hold still. And then... snip."

"Why?!" Why would anyone do that?!

"Why?" He repeats it as if he didn't hear me the first time. "Because it's necessary for progress."

"That's sickening!"

"You wouldn't understand."

"Psychopath! You're under arrest! Give up!"

"Oh? I'm under arrest? Klefki, show him his place."

As soon as he says it, Thunder Wave expands from him as the origin.

The attack washes over all of us, fries his equipment, and blows up the light tubes in the ceiling.

I see the world tumbling over until I feel my face smack into the ground.

Shards of glass and drops of glowing liquid rain down on me and on Sewaddle who convulses in pain beside me.

Somewhere else, another body hits the floor.

"B-bastard!" It's hard to speak under paralysis. The electric power is too strong for me, and the pain is unbearable.

It's like a continuous feeling of being under high-voltage shock. Lightning arcs across my skin constantly, ending at my fingertips before returning inside my body.

It feels impossible to move. Each motion is pure agony as I turn my head to look at what's going on.

"I won." His smugness has reached an unimaginable peak. His disgusting grin oozes with a sadistic confidence that borders on plain insanity.

"Y-you--"

"Yes, yes." He moves his hand in a mockery of my talk while digging in his pocket with his free hand. "You're not going to get away with this. I heard it a couple of times before. And you want to know something? I always get away with it."

"F-fuck! Y-you!"

He pulls out a half-eaten Cheri Berry and finishes it off.

"Now all that's left is to fight your paralyzed pokemon--"

"H-ha! H-ha! L-Lopunny, J-Jump K-Kick!"

In an instant, dread replaces his confidence. "Lopunny is not paralyzed! How is that possible?! Klefki, Protect!"

A sphere of light rips his shirt apart, but it stops Lopunny's kick. Her leg strikes the dome with a loud gong before dropping to the floor while Klefki unravels herself from her trainer's neck.

The pokemon who likes to hide in plain sight as a keyring, hung around his neck the entire time!

"Metal Sound!"

A piercing screech echoes through the basement. Like the noise of scraping metal against each other until they tear themselves apart.

Lopunny covers her massive ears as best as she can, and even I find my arms twitching on instinct despite the paralysis.

From the blood leaking out of Victor's ear, I can tell he's planning to win no matter what it takes.

"S-stall t-time!" If we drag this out, Salandit and Riolu will come back, and I can't possibly micromanage her in this state.

I need to cure this quickly. "S-Sewaddle, g-get C-Cheri B-Berry f-from b-backpack."

Her pokemon body is better suited to handle the paralysis status and she soon begins to crawl up my body, onto my back, and into the backpack, twitching in pain every few seconds.

"Keep it occupied, Klefki. Use Substitute."

Klefki's body glows up brightly for a moment before fading and leaving an obvious fake version of her body behind. A plastic-looking dummy replaced her.

By sacrificing some health, Substitute blocks damage until it breaks. Overkill damage can't pierce through.

"D-Double K-Kick."

"Tsk. You're still giving out orders?" Victor seems annoyed as he looks down on me. "Let's fix that."

He picks up a hammer from his workbench and approaches me.

I fucked up. He's going to kill me. I didn't think he was that dangerous.

"H-help!"

Lopunny interrupts her battle immediately and changes targets to attack Victor instead. She uses Quick Attack and jumps the final distance to her target--

A shimmer travels through the basement. All of a sudden, Lopunny floats through the air in slow motion. Victor spots her approach.

"That's the power of Trick Room." His voice sounds deeper and slowed down. "Klefki, use Psychic. Get it away from me."

As Lopunny's foot hits the ground for her next step, a blue light encases her without warning, lifts her up, and throws her into the opposite side of the basement, crashing in slow motion into the cages of paralyzed Maushold.

The cages held, the pokemon inside complain and try to break free as their cages tumble and crash.

"Lopunny!" My stutter? It's gone? I can still see the static coming from my body, but even it travels much slower than before.

The pain comes and goes in intervals. If I time it right, I can move!

A drop of glowing blue liquid falls down in front of my face: I can see the surface ripple as the air drags at it.

In-between jolts of agony, that make my body tremble and twitch, I can push myself up.

His eyes slowly widen in realization. His feet pick up the pace, but the more he hurries, the slower he becomes.

He fucked up.

Paralysis slows down opponents by 75%, meaning I'm simply much slower than usual for everything I try to do.

But speed is inverted! Trick Room inverts speed.

I'm the fastest creature in the room because of it!

"Argh!" It's still painful to move.

A hammer comes down in a powerful swing, but his arm moves too slowly.

I step past the swing. I see his balance faltering because of the force he put into the strike. I spot Sewaddle jumping off my shoulder, dropping a Cheri Berry during her short flight, and biting into his face with Bug Bite.

My hands catch the slowly falling berry on instinct as I watch Sewaddle tear open his cheek before he grabs her and flings her away.

The berry is in my hand, but I ignore it. Instead, I bite through the pain and punch him in the face.

He can't keep up with me.

"Stop--" Anoper punch breaks of a tooth. "Trick--" This one knocks the air out of his lungs. "Room." He wheezed out the final word. A mere moment later, the world resumes normal speed.

Instantly, the pain becomes unbearable and my legs give out.

But I still hold the berry in my hand. Sewaddle pulled through. I eat it and roll past another strike aiming for my head.

"Fake Out! Turn Klefki to shreds!"

"Klefki, use--" I bite his leg. "Aaah!"

He kicks me off but the distraction was enough for Lopunny to get into close combat.

He's running!

"Sewaddle, String Shot! Lopunny, Jump Kick!"

He doesn't stand a chance. This is nothing compared to the Diglett hordes!

String Shot binds up his legs while Lopunny finishes a strong chain of attacks against Klefki, sending the floating key chain flying across the room, into the central generator.

She dents the shell of the generator with the impact. Part of the combustion jet shoots out of a small hole and into the ceiling.

The machines that kept making noise all around us slowed down at the loss of pressure.

A few of the lights fade as the power wanes.

A rat lies on the ground, trying to pull off sticky webs from its legs.

Klefki rises once more into the air, the keys jingle as she shakes off her dizziness.

It's not over yet.

"Sewaddle, use String Shot on Klefki. Lopunny," She is steel and fairy, just like Dawn's Mawile. Almost nothing is strong against her. "Double Kick!"

Her fighting type will run out soon, but it's her only type that is at least normally effective.

Salandit's fire type would be best, but she's not here... Where are they? They need to hurry up! Aren't they hearing the noises?

Boom!

A piece of tubing exploded when Klefki smacked into it. "Fling!"

Lopunny can dish out another attack using the debris that's everywhere. "And then Quick Attack!" As always, she needs to stay close to her enemy.

Sewaddle is very weak on this level of combat. She is too slow to reach anything in time, she can't throw her Razor Leaf, and her bug type is almost completely useless against Klefki. All that's left for her is, "More String Shot!"

She spews another viscous white rope from her mouth and hits Klefki all over her face. The sticky strings bind her loosely to everything - ground, walls, debris - whenever it touches something.

But I'm seeing now, that wherever it sticks, once Klefki moves away from there, sticky spots remain which could hinder Lopunny at some point.

That should be the last set of String Shot for Klefki, she should focus on binding up Victor the rat completely now.

He's crawling on the ground in a pathetic, pitiful state. His face is a bloody, beaten pulp, and a chunk of flesh misses from his cheek.

A glance at Klefki shows her in a similarly beaten state. "Finish it with Jump Kick."

Victor has almost reached a little cabinet. "Thinking of hiding yourself? You're not going to get out of this." I see a glass shard in his hand. He's still as dangerous as a cornered animal.

Another explosive noise rings out before Klefki's keys collection clatters to the ground.

I know Lopunny won. I don't need to avert my eyes from the crawling rat to verify it.

Klefki is KO.

How do I handle him, though? I can't just attack him. Like a wild beast, he might land a lucky strike against me. Fling perhaps? Just a lot more String Shot?

But then I see it.

Shit.

His bindings have been cut already!

He springs to his feet and rushes the final distance to the cabinet...

---

Nina!?

What is the girl doing down here?!

"You will never win against me!" Victor bellows and coughs up blood, dragging the paralyzed little girl from the closet where she had been hiding.

She must have sneaked down here without me noticing, but Victor knew. The bastard knew all along!

"Don't hurt her, Victor! Leave the girl alone, or I swear I'll kill you!"

He's too dangerous. It has to end here. I need to take him out before he can hurt someone else.

Spittle frothed around Nina's mouth, sliding down her chin where Victor presses the jagged glass shard tightly against her throat. A single slice could take to end her life.

Her wide, pained, terrified eyes lock onto mine as her body twitches and spasms from Thunder Wave, driving the shard deeper into her flesh. Blood begins to flow.

"P-p-please--" Her voice is choppy, unable to even finish her pleading due to pain.

But she doesn't need to worry at all.

Victor doesn't know it yet, but I won: Riolu has finally arrived.

She, Lady Evershade, Alfred, and Purugly stand at the bottom of the staircase, blocking his exit. The noise has finally attracted them and they look on in horror at the hostage.

"Nina!" Her mother screams. "Victor! Don't do it! I beg you!"

His head is on a swivel. He's surrounded. He can't keep his attention on everyone at once. It's the perfect moment.

"It's over, Victor."

"It's not!" His bloodshot eyes remind me of a manic beast. "I am Victor Manchineel! The greatest inventor the world has seen! I won't be stopped by a meddling child! I always win!"

Riolu, disarm him with Confusion.

He doesn't see it coming. How could he? Riolu isn't supposed to know Confusion.

He's too distracted to see her blue-shining eyes or the way her feelers rise into the air.

An impulse rushes forth, homing in on the shard and ripping it out of his hand, leaving a trail of blood behind after it sliced through his bones.

"Argh!" Victor pulls back in pain as three of his fingers drop to the floor. His other hand clenches into a fist, and he strikes Nina with all his might, trying to take her out with him.

The poor girl lets out a muffled cry as her body continues to convulse from Thunder Wave.

"Lopunny!" She's already on the move, rushing into the brawl. She jumps the final distance and lands a drop kick against his chest, smashing him into the cabinet.

The force slams the doors closed.

"Nina!" Lady Evershade rushes to her daughter in a panic. "Oh, dear! What happened to you?! Speak with me!"

"M-m--" She won't be able to reply until the paralysis lets up.

The fight isn't over. "Riolu." She rushes to me at the unspoken order.

I know Victor won't surrender until his body gives out.

Only Arceus knows what he's preparing as he hides in the closet.

The bastard is undoubtedly designing his next deceitful ploy. He's good at it.

But Lopunny and Riolu stand beside me to protect me no matter what he does.

My hands grip the handles of the closet. I prepare my foot to kick his teeth out the moment I see his ugly mug.

Woosh Wind rushes through the slit between the doors as I rip them open.

The closet is empty.

Nothing?

Did he have a secret exit?

Panic floods my veins as I inspect the cabinet's walls in a rush, trying to find a hidden leaver, another door in the back, anything!

Nothing!

How did he disappear?!

There is nothing! No blood, no lever, not even scratches!

There are no sounds either.

When did it get so quiet?

Lady Evershade was crying just moments ago. Nina had been groaning and whining in pain.

An ice-cold feeling washes down my back, making the hairs on the back of my neck rise.

"Thanks for saving me, Mister." Nina's steady, calm voice comes from right behind me.

How did she cure her paralysis?

"I-it's n-no problem." I'm ice cold. Why did it get so cold all of a sudden?

I turn around, dread gripping my heart tightly.

She just stands there.

She looks normal.

A bright smile paints her face as her eyes shine with joy... She walks upright on her own, and her mother is nowhere to be seen. Alfred is missing too.

Purugly looks... off. She rests on the ground, not moving a muscle. Not even breathing.

Nina doesn't breathe either.

"I just wish you could have saved me earlier."

She hugs my legs and presses her face against my stomach. On instinct, I hug her back.

She's cold as ice.

"W-what do you mean, earlier?"

She looks up.

Her eyes are gone. In their place are just two empty holes.

I blink and the lights shut off.

I can't see a thing. Nothing but darkness remains.

Nina feels different. Lighter. "N-nina?" My teeth clatter from the cold. "What did you mean? Why was I supposed to save you earlier?"

She doesn't respond.

~"M-master, your flashlight." Lopunny grabbed my shoulder and pressed herself against me. She's the only source of warmth in this cold dark basement.

With my free hand, I pull out the flashlight.

A part of me screams to keep the light off; to just walk away. I don't want to face reality... but I don't listen.

I turn on the flashlight.

Skeletal arms wrap around my legs tightly. Tiny bony arms. As soon as my eyes land upon them, they loosen their hold.

Nina crumbles to the ground.

"W-what?"

She has turned into a skeleton.

What the hell is going on?

The basement has been trashed and looted.

Another set of bones, belonging to a quadruped, lies where Purugly used to be.

This is impossible.

~"Master? Can we leave?" Riolu replaced Nina around my legs. Her warm body is a stark contrast to the bone-deep chill that Nina left.

It can't be.

~"M-masster!" Salandit comes rushing down the stairs. ~"T-the humans! They've escaped! And there are skeletons everywhere!"

I- What- My mouth drops. "They were all ghosts all along..." I can't believe it.

Still, my heart aches anyway.

I shine my flashlight around. The basement has been destroyed. The jet generator is ruined. The pipes have burst and glass shards are scattered over the floor. The viscous liquid has cooled and crystallized, but it stopped glowing.

My legs move on their own as I make my way through the chaos.

It doesn't make sense: It's the damage our fight left. However, it looks as if it happened hundreds of years ago.

The workstation where Victor researched the potion is empty. Everything except the table itself has been cleared. Where did the bottle go?

The bronze vacuum chamber has rusted but it's still in the same state. Miss Maid's skull looks back at me through the open hatch. Wires and tubes still bore inside her. All skin and flesh are gone. Just a bare skull.

Victor's mechanical pokeballs, the failures at least, are still here. Only his most recent experiment has been taken away.

The Maushold cages contain four tiny skeletons. He didn't even free them before he fled. Terrible.

The shelf misses most of its valuables. The Apricorn balls are gone-- No wait. One remains. It was hidden behind the globe.

It's the Friend Ball that Sewaddle liked so much... I'm taking it with me. I will check it at the pokemon center to see if it's usable or not. If it can't read TMs, I'll need to buy a new one for Sewaddle. Worst case, I can sell it to a museum as an antiquity.

Good grief...

Victor survived. He won. He murdered Miss Maid. He killed Nina. He killed the rest of them. He escaped and left with all of his research material.

We lost.

I scratch Sewaddle beneath the chin so she stops trying to reach for the pokeball.

"We should leave. This place belongs to the ghosts."

I say, but something keeps holding me back.

I know these people.

Alfred cooked for me.

Rupert was a nice bloke with a terrible wife.

Gregory was a man who cared for many pokemon out of the goodness of his heart.

Nina was just a child.

None of them deserved that happening to them. They should have gotten to live their life, but now they can't even rest in peace.

Their bodies were left to rot in an old chateau that never saw any visitors.

Tears blur my vision as I pick up their bones. Carefully, I remove Miss Maid's skull from the terrible machine and store it in my backpack.

I know of a nice spot in the garden where they can stay.

... This sucks.

The stairs squeak a lot more on the way up. Nothing looks grand or expensive anymore. It's all old, rotten and forgotten.

Miss Maid's corpse was left untouched in the middle of the lobby.

Alfred and Lady Evershade were inside the kitchen. They tried to use the kitchen equipment to fight back, but they didn't stand a chance against a pokemon.

I find Rupert's and Gregory's bones just outside the tool shed. It seems like Victor caught them by surprise.

And finally, I found the place where I trained. The clearing Miss Maid showed me. Where she let me rest my head on her lap.

Over the years, it has turned into a beautiful meadow of flowers surrounded by a wild, untamed forest.

Using the shovel, the one that has been with me since I started my journey, I dig seven nice, deep holes in the ground as the sun peeks over the horizon and bathes me in gentle light.

A new day begins.

I pluck one of the many flowers and place it on Miss Maid's grave before I turn around to leave.

Tears stream down my face as I keep telling myself that none of this was real.

"It was real to me, sir."

It's her voice.

Another cold feeling grips me, but it's one I welcome. I turn around, wanting to see her again.

"My name was Mary."

Over her grave, in the shadows of a tree floats a headless woman. Mary the maid.

"You will continue your adventure, won't you, sir?"

"Yes." I can't keep my voice steady.

"Can you look for my pokeball?"

My confusion must have been apparent.

"He took my soul away and put me inside a pokeball."

That's what his machine did? How terrible.

"I will look for it."

The air gets warmer as the sun peeks over the treeline. Mary shimmers and fades away slowly. "Thank you, Sir."

"Goodbye."

... She's gone.

I turn around and leave.

---

Narrator-POV:

As the sun rose, and the roses opened their blossoms in the morning, our hero Swole Solo walked out of an overgrown garden.

He did not notice a little shade attaching itself to his shadow. Nor did he see the little spider climbing down a tree.

The little Joltic saw it all. "I knew the house was haunted." He nods to himself, slowing himself down to match the speed of our sad hero.

But in his saddened heart, there lies a tiny seed. Planted by Mary the maid, watered by the people he met, and nurtured by his simple pettiness: It's his resolve to find Mary once more, to bring the investigation to an end, and to find out what Victor built with the goal to destroy it.

Or steal it. He is not sure about it yet.

Perhaps it is merely a machine that keeps her soul trapped for eternity, or maybe she has become some type of legendary pokeball. A master of all balls?

Or maybe an artificial pokemon?

His imagination runs wild. What could Victor have built?

Either way, he will find her. The seed has already sprouted and taken root in his heart. To him, it is as certain as his victory in the platinum league.

With a new spring in his step, he continues his way to Eterna City.

What adventures will wait for him next? And what will his girlfriends say about his infidelity?

Well, there is nothing to do, except to wait to find out!

...

...

...

In the meantime, let us see how his companions are fairing.

Bonk "Zoeyyy, we're stuuuck."

"And whose fault is that? And stop doing that. Smacking your head against the tree won't help."

"Zoeyyy..." Dawn listened and did not knock her head against the tree again. "I'm booored. Find us a way up, pleaaase."

"Hi, bored. I'm hungry." Zoey's stomach growls, and she gives up trying to find out where they are on the map. "Let's just take a break in that cave over there. We can cook something and then find a way up this stupid mountain."

"... I'm sorry I can't climb."

"Good grief-- I mean, sigh, don't worry, dummy. I will find us a better way up soon. You just rest your ankle, take another potion, and give me that."

"Hey! That's my coffee!"

"It's taxes for bad climbers." Zoey keeps Dawn at arm's length while swallowing her coffee. "And it was your fault my favorite cup broke!"

Zoey's cup did not survive their little climbing accident, even though it was inside her bag. It's very unusual for things inside infinite-space bags to break, yet, for some reason, it happened.

And now it's just two girls, one cup.

When the two of them tried to use the bridge that connects Oreburgh City to Eterna City, they were a few days too late. It had to be temporarily closed for maintenance and security checks.

They thought they could climb down, traverse the valley between the two cities, and climb back up on the other side.

However, Dawn messed it up. Now they are stuck until her foot heals.

"Sowwy."

"Stop acting cute." Zoey once again feels disappointed over the circumstances around her journey. "At least I don't have to deal with Team Rocket anymore."

...

...

...

"James?" A pink-haired lady asks as she combs some explosive residue out of her hair.

The blue-haired man puts down his notebook where he jotted down their finances. "Yes, Jessie?"

"That was a much stronger explosion than usual, wouldn't you say?"

"Hmhm. Much stronger. We're blasting off for quite a long way this time. I can even see Oreburgh City from up here."

Team Rocket has blasted off once again.

Meowth points at something below. "Hey, look, guys! I think we're going to land right in that valley over there! Meowth. The valley underneath the bridge that connects Oreburgh City to Eterna City!"

Team Rocket is on their way to make Zoey's day even worse.

...

...

...

"... Bye-bye..."

"Goodbye, and thank you for all your help."

"Well," Ben Solo is not a very social person. "Don't get into any trouble."

He simply turns around and walks back inside the Galactic-owned building.

Marley waits until he is out of earshot before turning to her bowing companion.

"... How long until your boyfriend comes?"

"My fiance." Akari corrects her friend as she finishes the bow. She looks at her friend and can't help but pull a grimace. "You should wear a little more color. My friend Arezu always said colors make attractive."

"No, thanks... It's called goth. Boys like it... It's more my style."

Akari then closes her eyes for a few moments, trying to concentrate on the life essences of her loved ones. "He should be here soon."

"... I am so jealous..."

"Don't be, Marley, you still look young, you will find a husband too, I believe in you!"

"... Of your aura..."

"Oh."

"... Let's have cake for lunch, and explore the town!"

Akari shoots it down with a shake of her head. "We can have lunch, but I want to explore with Swole."

"Buhhh... Now I'm jealous of that too..."

Marley grabs Akari by her wrist and pulls her along the street to the first cafe she saw on her way in.

She almost decides to take her somewhere else when she spots a loud group of boys sitting outside the small eatery with happy faces as they laugh and brag about their recent successes at the Eterna City gym.

"-- the only thing that pisses me off, is that we have only caught up to Swole! He already has two gym badges!"

"Hahaha! Don't worry, Ash, I'm sure he's also pissed off over your 24 badges from other regions."

"28, Barry." The tall, tanned teenager corrects him. "He also won the Orange League and needed four badges for that."

Ash counts his other wins on his fingers. "I also won the P1 Grand Prix, the Extreme Pokemon Race, the Bug-Catching Contest, the Beach Beauty and Pokemon Costume Contest--"

"Yeah, yeah, I get it-- Wait, what was that last one? Beach Beauty Contest?" Barry squints his eyes in suspicion. "Bro. That sounds gay."

"Uhhh... Ah, right. I didn't win that one. Team Rocket ended the competition. I only got the trophy for it."

Brock nods along with a lewd smile on his face. "I remember it like it was yesterday. One of Gary's cheerleaders should have won that competition."

"Urgh. Don't remind me of them, Brock! Oh, no... Swole... he is out there gathering his own squad of cheerleaders!" Crippling memories of Gary's bullying resurface all at once. "Nooo! Not again!"

Barry doesn't get it. "Speaking of cheerleaders, over there are two of them." He then waves. "Hey! Akari! Over here!"

"Huh." Brock turns around to look at them. "I only recognize one of them. Bad news, Ash. Looks like his cheer squad grew by one more."

"Nooo!"

...

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