Irony of Fate

They’re after me. Again.

Running as fast as I can, I don’t have the time to turn and look, but from their screams of “Get the Absol!” and “Kill the bringer of misfortune!” slowly but steadily growing louder, I can hear that they’re gaining on me.

Can’t they leave me alone? After what they did to my mate and babies, oh, how can they be so cruel? In my anger, I find the energy to speed up just a little bit.

Those filthy human creatures with their staffs of death!

I remember it so well when they just held those staffs forward, there was a loud booming noise and blood suddenly started prickling down his forehead and he dropped to the ground. And the scream in my mind when his body went stiff, his eyes lifeless…

People of Fortree, you don’t have the tiniest idea how much I loathe you for what you did.

Any creature with a heart would have spared the young ones. But as we all know, humans don’t have a heart. How can you kill innocent little creatures that look with big, terrified eyes between you and their father’s dead body? I can’t understand it. But humans do it. Without remorse. As long as they feel that’s what serves their own good best.

I take a sharp turn, a cloud of dust emerging from the dry road under my feet as my trusty claws narrowly avoid tripping. They’ll have to get out of their cars now. I might manage to escape. But at the same time, I can’t run as fast in the woods as on the road. It is a risk, but I know for sure that they will catch me if they can use their cars any longer. The dirty beasts wouldn’t hesitate to drive through anything they can possibly drive through.

I’ve heard of decent humans, though. They’re called ‘trainers’. Some are cruel, but most are just people who consider pokémon as their friends, take loving care of them, respect their free will even if it involves going back to the wild, and raise them to become strong. If the superstitious people of Fortree hadn’t killed them, my children could have been caught by trainers, raised to champions and ended up winning the pokémon league humans apparently have for trainers. Superstitious rats! I’d love to dig my claws deep into the person who first started blaming everything that goes wrong on Absols. We may be Dark types, but does that make us bad?

But trainers are usually kids, and there plain and simply are no kids in Fortree. Not trainers, at least. The cruel trainers are almost always adults or close to being adult. And the rest are kids who are trying to be adults. Come to think of it… what the bloody hell happens when humans grow up?

I automatically jump over the river I know so well. Thankfully, it’s broad enough for a human to be incapable of jumping over it. I can finally rest.

I slowly walk over the next hill so that they won’t be able to see me and therefore will be unable to kill me with the death staffs as well. I’m finally getting some chance to rest my legs.

Still, just to be safe, I take a small peek at the humans. They seem to be talking about a way to get over the river. I lean closer, trying to hear what they’re saying.

“…and we can probably just throw a path of rocks in there so we can get over it,” one says.

“No, we don’t have any big rocks here,” another one says. “And certainly not the power to move them.”

“What about if we just got a plank or something?”

“I don’t know, but we must get the Absol, otherwise it will return.”

Stupid creatures. If they just told me politely to stay away from their town, I’d stay away from it. Haven’t you ever realized that pokémon can understand what you say, humans?

Well, alas, no, they haven’t. Not these, at least. Or maybe they just think that I would rather stay and let them kill me than run to a better place to be? That’s even more stupid to think. But then again, did I ever doubt their stupidity? Nope.

I realize that I haven’t heard anything they said after I got lost in my own thoughts, but apparently they have found out what they’re going to do judging from their actions. I have seen enough. I best hurry and get a jump-start.

I leap silently around the forest, enjoying myself as much as possible in these circumstances. I feel an ambition in keeping myself alive; I want to survive and I know that he’d have wanted it too if he were still here. Oh, I miss him already…

Stupid humans. I mentioned before that pokémon can understand what you say. It’s because our voice is not as developed as yours, and therefore our language is based on syllables, tones and body expressions. This makes us understand each other, and you too. What has a meaning to you is the sound made. What has a meaning to us is the way the sound is made and how it connects to the sounds before and after it. The emphasis. And this enables us to understand any pokémon, and humans too. I know a story about a boy called Satoshi. He had a Pikachu, and his Pikachu called him “Pikapi”. With emphasis on the same syllables, said in the same tone. I would call him “Absolab”, in the exact same way. In the eyes of a pokémon, there is no difference between “Satoshi”, “Pikapi” and “Absolab”. Humans have to make a difference. Face it, humans. We’re superior, both in intelligence and power.

I’m awoken from my thoughts by human smell. Guess I should hurry, because it looks like they crossed the river.

I break into a run. It’s just too darn hard to avoid the trees. I trip when I get tangled in a root sticking out of the ground. Because of my speed, I’m thrown forward and crash headfirst into the ground.

I stand heavily up. I hear they are coming. I try to run, but my leg is broken. I run on three legs for a few seconds, but then I hear they are about to get to me. It’s strange they haven’t killed me with the death staffs yet, though.

I suddenly turn around, seeing them just a meter away from me.

“Get back! Stay away from me!” I scream, even though I know they just hear a screech that could as well be an invitation to battle, as the blade on the left side of my head glows bright white. I swing my head, but they evade it. One of them points a death staff at me. There. Now it’s over. I somehow fall from contact from the world before anything actually happens. Then I feel something hit my side. I’m not dead. I slowly open my eyes again. The human lowers his death staff. What’s going on? My vision is fading… I’m getting a headache… what’s happening to me?

I feel that I collapse, but then everything goes black.

-------------------


But I wake up again. Still with a headache, I stand up, force my eyes open and instantly my attention is caught by the seriously strange place I’m in.

It’s some kind of a room. The floor and walls are in an orange-ish color similar to a Raichu’s fur. But what is strange is that there are no shadows.

None. At all. Not like a sketch or something; they have outlines. This has neither. I can’t see where one wall ends and another begins. I can’t see where the floor ends and the wall begins, either. This orange is all around me, except for a blue bowl with small brown balls in. Of course, they don’t have any shadows either, so I’m really just guessing that they are balls.

I carefully take a step. The floor is still solid. Slowly I walk over to the bowl. I have certain suspicions that those balls might be originated from a pokémon’s backside, but when I smell them, it turns out that they’re not. Actually, they smell edible.

I suddenly feel how hungry I am. I slowly take a bite. It doesn’t taste that bad. I eat all the food, whatever it is, and then just lie down on that weird floor. It’s not cold, not warm, not soft, not hard…

For short, this is an extremely weird place. But I just lie there and don’t know what I can entertain myself with, until I suddenly feel like I’m being ripped apart, just without the pain. Then I feel myself reform, but I’m not in the room anymore. I’m inside a building. An Altaria hovers in the air above me. Behind me, a small human boy stands.

“Absol, Quick attack!” he screams in a squeaky voice. I turn back to the Altaria. Behind her, there is a woman wearing a light blue and white suit. She has purple hair that is shaped into some kind of wings at the front. She’s pretty for a human, actually.

With a determined expression on her face, she gives the Altaria an order: “Altaria, Dragonbreath!”

I suddenly discover what is going on. This is a pokémon battle – one between two humans. Two trainers.

While I’m pondering, the Altaria opens its mouth, releasing a jet of bright blue flames at me. I leap to the side, panic-stricken. My blade glows, I swing it at the Altaria but only hit the insubstantial cloud. I’m going crazy, I smash the floor, try to attack my new trainer, manage to slash the Altaria to the ground, knock down a lamp. It lights a fire. Everything happens so fast I can’t keep up with it, get more scared, wreck more havoc. The fire is spreading. Everybody inside runs out, just before a big chunk of the ceiling falls down and blocks the door. The ceiling is falling all around me.

I’m starting to calm down, so I look around for a possible escape. Then I hear something cracking above me, and narrowly leap to the side to avoid getting smashed. I notice a window, and without thinking, I run over to it. Being sure-footed really helps in such a situation.

I jump at the window, expecting to get out, but instead, I hit something invisible and shatter it. I cut myself on this invisible stuff, then land firmly on the ground.

It’s over.

I stare at the burning building. And I wonder.

Could there be some sense in that superstition? That Absols really do bring disasters and destruction?

No. That can’t be. There isn’t destruction around me all the time.

Destruction for humans, maybe?

How come I’m starting to believe I bring bad luck?

The screams of the people sound far away. The fire is getting me into a trance. I shake it off, try to concentrate. But I can’t.

Are they right?

Well, I mustn’t stay here for too long. I turn, take a last look at what I did, then silently trot away into the forest. You shall not manage to kill me, humans. Never. I won’t let you. As the only surviving member of my family, I will keep on surviving.

Let’s not meet again…