The air suddenly feels thick, it's harder to breathe. Mike stays crouched next to the injured scout, while Jim steps up. Mirana is slowly moving closer as well, Mike can hear rather than see, as he barely dares to look away from the intruders.
Two of the newcomers step into the orange firelight, their pokémon staying behind menacingly, and he can see that they are both men. One is tall and round, the other crouched together and thinner. He briefly wonders if they are part of one of the native clans, until the large man speaks up.
"Take off your clothes."
Jim nearly laughs in surprise and looks from his allies and back to the two men. "What?"
"We have spares you can have. We just need yours. They're looking mighty fine like Jubilife garbs, see. We wanna blend in."
"Shut up, stupid!" the thinner man says. "Don't go spoiling our plans just like that."
"They won't make it back in time anyways," the first man shrugs.
"We won't give you anything," Mike says and stands up, hoping his glare comes across as defiant even though he's turned away from the fire.
The person still in the shadows behind the two men gives out a huff. "Suit yourselves," they say, and make a gesture.
Which apparently meant 'attack', because the thin man immediately barks out some sort of order. From the bushes next to Mike, a pokémon leaps out - he has forgotten to keep track of them as they stalked around in the shadows, he has been too focused on the humans. The attacker goes straight for his belly-
But gets suckerpunched, for lack of a better term, by a pink blob jumping up from below. Bounce
Tackles the Machop straight in its own belly and sends it flying into the tree near Calandar, who welps and stumbles away.
"Leave this to us," Mirana's voice suddenly comes, her hand on Mike's arm for a brief second, before she's dashed forward.
From her pokéball, her own partner emerges in a bright light, cooing in an eerie way as she taunts the Machop away from the Bounsweet - much to Bounce's chagrin. Mike has to once again scoop her up and hold her hard to get her out of harms way. Luckily, Machop is successfully distracted by the ghost.
But the larger man has not been standing idly by; as soon as Machop was tackled, he sent forward a pokémon of his own - a Timburr. It is easy to tell that Jim isn't a fighter, but also that he won't back down when he's needed. Staravia appears by his side and easily fends off the pesky enemy, earning angry shouts from its trainer.
"What do we do?" Cal asks, terror in his voice.
"They've got this, they've got this," Mike reassures him, or himself, as he tries to support the scout and hold onto Bounce at the same time. He should get her back into the pokéball, he really should try to be more quick-thinking. "Hold on a second," he tells Cal and lets go of them both for just a moment, just to pick the ball up from the pouch.
A shriek reaches them then, causing Mike to turn back around. Staravia has fallen down, lying in a crackling mess next to the campfire and a crestfallen Jim not daring to go close. Because walking up towards them is a new pokémon, and it's one Michael has never seen before, barely heard of. Tall, purple and yellow, a glare that looks bored more than anything, but terrifying when you know that the creature is not on your side.
"A Toxtricity..." Mirana gasps, but recovers quickly and sends Misdreavus back in. "Jim, get back to the others, I'll handle this!"
Mike has forgotten what he's doing; Bounce is out of his arms and somewhere else, Cal is hopping away from the fire on his own, clearly in pain doing so, and Jim looks frozen on the spot as the electric pokémon looms closer and the bandits are laughing behind it. Mike just knows, somehow, that Misdreavus has not got this.
His pokémon has the same idea, because suddenly he sees where she is: standing defiantly between the fallen bird and the approaching enemy, chittering angrily.
"Oh no..." Mike says, and runs back towards them.
He sees Misdreavus' eyes glow where it floats in the sky above and ahead of him - she's assaulting the electric pokémon with some psychic or ghostly power. But the enemy is barely slowed, shrugging at most, and without warning spits up a heavy spray of something at the ghost. It winces, but keeps trying to force its powers into the enemy's mind, it seems. Toxtricity is still looking at it, rather than at Bounce, despite her noise-making.
Mike decides the risk is worth it, and leaps towards the campfire, grabbing both the grass type and Staravia and tries to get back up. But the latter which is heavier than it looks, he discovers, and Bounce slips out of his grasp again. Mike groans, shoves Staravia into Jim's arms and practically shoves him away towards the direction Cal's gone off in.
He turns back again just in time to see Misdreavus fall into a similarly crackling mess, only to get returned to its pokéball by Mirana... And Toxtricity finally turning to face the small grass pokémon. Bounce keeps yapping at the enemy.
How does she completely lack fear? What is wrong with her?
"Stop! Please!" Mike calls out as he runs towards them. "We'll do what you want!"
He ignores Mirana's disapproving gaze as he runs past her. Of course they have to give up now. What else can they do?
"Please," he repeats, stopping just in front of Bounce, and realizing only then that Toxtricity is only a couple of meters away. And much taller than he'd expected. How is it so tall?
"Bit too late to be polite now, I'm afraid," the third person from before says, still in the shadows. "Toxtricity?
Belch."
Poison types really are the worst. So insidious, so difficult to counter or avoid. So dangerous. Mike feels the color drain from his face as Toxtricity's mouth opens.
But then there's a strange shift in his surroundings, like a shimmer... And he's no longer standing with the campfire behind him.
He blinks and spins around. Bounce looks up at him from his feet, looking just as confused as him for a change. Then she yelps and jumps in surprise, and he spots the reason a microsecond later.
Next to them is someone entirely new. It is very dark here, the fire nowhere to be seen, but this creature is almost entirely white, and has a mysterious glimmer coming from it. Michael's brain finds the information soon enough.
"A Ralts?"
The wild creature nods silently.
"You... Rescued us? Somehow moved us with magic?"
It leans its head to the side.
Mike shakes his head. "No... No, no, you have to get us back! We can't leave them! Can you go back and rescue them too?"
Ralts looks unsure, takes a hesitant step back. It doesn't seem to...
want to do it?
That's right, Ralts are peculiar pokémon. They only ever appear to humans with certain emotional dispositions, or something like that. Michael has only heard about it in stories, he barely thought Ralts was real, to be completely honest. Maybe it doesn't care for the others, and somehow decided that Michael was worth more than them.
"You're wrong," he thinks out loud, and then realizes that he really does want to say it. "I'm not worth rescuing. I'm never the one who should be saved! Others always are. I don't deserve it. So whatever sense you use to decide whom to save and not? It's broken. I'm sorry. Thank you, but... No."
And he takes off, running. Bounce is not as fast as him and yells until he stops, lets her catch up, and picks her up in his arms. This time, she doesn't try to get away.
He has seen an orange light downhill that has to be the campfire from before. He keeps running towards it, not a full sprint, but a good pace. He can't spend all his energy. He's not entirely sure what he has to do once he gets back there... Not even what he
can do. But he has to try something. It's the way he has to live now, no choice.
He finally reaches the camp, and tries to remain hidden while he assesses the situation. His Jubilife companions have been rounded up, even tied up. Their jackets or outer shirts have been removed, and the bandits are discussing something. Machop and Timburr are licking their wounds, but Toxtricity is standing guard... It might spot them too soon if he's not careful enough. Toxtricity's trainer sits on the same rock Mirana occupied earlier - it took Mike a while to spot them. He still can't make out what they look like.
"Okay, so... Okay..." Mike breathes so only Bounce next to him hears. He's sure she's raring to go and slap the electric enemy in whatever way she can, but perhaps she senses how serious he is now, because she actually sits tight for once in her life and keeps her attention on him. "We can't fight them... We're no fighters. We've never battled, we've just... been playing around. Maybe we can, um, we can use your powers, your techniques, I can maybe throw some punches, eh probably not. I can lure some away? But what's the use, they'll just beat us up and then tie us up too, and then sneak into Jubilife. Ah, who are they anyways?"
Unexpectedly then, Mirana screams. Mike peeks back out from his hiding place and sees the large man having taken her hat. He's pulling her braids now, and laughing.
And all of Michael's control is gone.
He picks Bounce up and runs out from his hiding place, far enough away from Toxtricity that he can reach Mirana before it can react, and he tosses his pink blob at the large man.
"Rapid Spin!"
It works. Bounce obeys - eagerly - and starts spinning mid-air. She hits the man's face hard and he falls over flat on his back, letting go of Mirana's hair immediately.
"Bad move, boy!" the thinner man says, walking towards him from the tied up Jim and Cal near the fire. He raises his hand as if to punch the younger man, since his pokémon is still injured from before.
"Uh, Razor Leaf!" Mike calls out, and Bounsweet almost gleefully fires off a stream of sharp leaves at the man, who has to throw himself to the ground to avoid being shredded.
But then, Toxtricity is there again, and Mike doesn't even see it charge up an attack before the crackling
Shock Wave hits him and Bounsweet both. Pain courses through his body and he feels grass and dirt against his face without even registering that he's falling over. He's blinded by pain more than light, and he isn't sure what is happening, where is Bounce...
But Toxtricity doesn't attack him again. Instead, he realizes after a few dazed seconds that it is moving away, staggering even. Someone else has appeared in between him and the purple monster, a small, white frame.
"Ralts?" Mike says weakly. Is it here to teleport them away again? Maybe they can somehow make their way to Jubilife, or find another Survey or Supply group, maybe they can get help after all.
But Ralts doesn't appear to try to teleport. Instead, it lets out a single small puffing noise, before it starts to shine brightly. Michael's pained nerves catch up to him then and he is forced to hiss from the sensation and doesn't quite see what happens from then on.
Until Mirana is helping him back up on his feet with a worried look on her face.
"What? How long was I out?" Mike asks dizzily.
"A minute or two. The bandits are gone. Your friend chased them off surprisingly effectively. Although I suspect it took a bit more damage than it wants to show."
He looks around, sees Jim and Calandar untied with their own shirts back on, sees Bounsweet yap at him from his feet, and behind Mirana stands someone new. Mike just blinks for a moment.
"Seems like it evolved to protect you. That's... That's amazing," Mirana says with a nod, and actually sounds impressed. "You know they only come to people with positive disposition, right? Ralts, that is. This one is now a Kirlia."
Mike kneels in front of the newly evolved pokémon, and his trained eye can indeed see that in whatever battle he just missed, it did take some damage. But it is holding it together, for some reason. Maybe it doesn't want to look weak?
"Thank you," he says earnestly. "We wouldn't have made it without you."
The Kirlia manages a smile. Bounsweet immediately looks annoyed.
The group doesn't stay there. Together, they are able to half-carry Cal back until sunrise comes. Then, they finally let the men sleep for a bit, while Mirana keeps watch together with Mike's pokémon. When they wake up, it's daytime, and they try to convince Mirana to get some sleep too, to no avail. They push on.
Eventually, they see Jubilife Village and dare to smile again.
"Is life outside the village gates always this dangerous?" Mike can't help but asking as he watches Jim lead Cal downhill, Staravia flying ahead above them.
"Nah," Mirana says. Her hat is back on, and she actually looks just like she did when they set out on this mission. Maybe she had already been looking a bit dreary then, but Mike just hadn't been able to tell since he didn't know her yet.
"So we were just unlucky?"
She raises an eyebrow at him then, before nodding to his side. "You really think you were unlucky, Med Corps?"
He follows her gaze, to the Kirlia who is still walking beside him with a strange air of serenity about it. Bounsweet kept trying to make the fairy stumble or otherwise rile it up (to no avail, thankfully), so she is back in her pokéball as a precaution. He smiles, and even laughs a little.
"I suppose not."
When Kirlia follows him into the village too, it dawns on him that it has chosen to stay by his side. Its Ralts-compass really must be broken. Because he is not the kind of person who deserves to be rescued and followed like that. But for now, he'll accept it and see what the future holds for them.
