The Patron Quadrilogy: The Legend Begins

Chapter 44

Warning: This is gonna be a long one.
Tuesday, October 17th, 9:46 a.m.
Brimstone Pub

"Alright. So, what'll it be, you guys?" Brendan asked Ash's friends. "Are you guys willing to receive Powers? We can't force them on you. You need to make the choice, and you need to make the choice now." They were silent for a moment.

"Why now?" Dawn asked. "And why us?"

"You guys are May's friends, and Max is her brother. And May has an insane killer-clown-cactus man with immense power after her. And he has plenty of dangerous, albeit weaker, friends. Plainly, May's vulnerable as long as you guys can't fend for yourselves. And before some of you say, "I've taken self defense classes", those lessons aren't going to be much use against someone with Powers. Well, not unless you have Powers yourselves. Moreover, try as we might, we can't protect every single one of you from them when the time comes."

"And this is the only other choice?" Cilan asked.

"Certainly not," Brendan explained. "But, recently, the situation changed significantly. With the emergency meeting getting attacked, and the Tree of Beginning being all but destroyed, what remains of the Patron Order has declared war. Two groups were created. Our group is going to be preparing for the inevitable attack by Harley. The other group is trying to find any Patrons that were not at the Tree. It's not ideal, but that's the way it is."

"Who all is in your group?" Iris asked. "And if we agree to accept Powers, will it only be from your group?"

"I'll answer your second question first. Yes. It's not ideal, but unfortunately that's how it is. As for who is going to be hanging back with us, well, they'll be here soon. The only one who will be absent for at least a week or so is April, the Patron of Articuno, whom you've met previously. One of her Lieutenants got  injured during the attack. She's fine now, but she needs to recover and April's likely going to be tending to her until she's regained some of her strength."

"Um, if some of us chose April," Serena began. "We wouldn't really be able to start training before we got the Powers. So we'd still be at a disadvantage. More of a disadvantage, in this case, right?"

"Yeah, but in all honesty there isn't really such a thing as an "advantage" at the moment," Brendan replied. "According to our bag of tricks, Ash can find people who can become Aura Guardians. Heck, he might even be able to teach some of you for all I know. But, while Harley won't be expecting that, he can't use his Aura too well. At least, not yet. But I don't think he'll become master within such a short timespan. Our other trick is that May, Steven, and myself, can use what Groudon calls a "Primal Form". However, that has three problems. First, only May achieved it and that was only for around maybe a minute or two. Second, it clearly takes a large amount of Energy. I'd imagine frequent use does make it easier to utilize as the body would acclimate to it in some sort of way. But, that could take months, years even. And that's time we don't have. Third, May quite literally almost died after using it for the first time, and that was only for a short time, though she was exhausted prior to using the Form."

"Oh my Arceus!" Max yelped. "May, are you alright!?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, little bro. And, I agree with Brendan. Primal Form is too risky to bet on. However, we need to keep it as a last resort, even if I have to use it myself."

"You'd willingly throw your life away for this fight!?" Max exclaimed, with several of the others agreeing with the boy.

"Max, in case you forgot, if we fail, then everyone is going to die," May said calmly. "Our parents. Our friends. You. The people who decided that I was worth believing in when I became a Coordinator. If I can do anything to save all of it, I will."