My (Twisted) Pokémon Journey: PMD Different Futures

Chapter Fifteen - Wigglytuff Guild's Expedition

So I had this all planned out, and was working on it for a majority of September. I expected to get this out in early October, when I stopped working on the ending -- I had 6,000 words. I thought the last section wouldn't take me long, but I still ended up with nearly 10,000 words!

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     I was in a field with the rest of PokéClan. We were resting, eating, as we travelled somewhere. It was a random job assignment from the Guild, I knew. Our bags were packed full of equipment in case we got stuck out here longer than we anticipated. Everyone was content and happy.

I noticed something in the distance, over Pika's shoulder. Kip sat next to me, and Hex sat next to Pika. But that... what was that? Something dark, far away. It took me a few moments to notice that it...

"Hey, Pearl, what are you staring at?" Pika asked cheerfully. "You're not paying attention to our conversation anymore, are you?"

I took my eyes off the dark spot in the distance. "There's something—"

With my attention off of it for just that instant, it rushed over the distance toward us. I could only flinch away as the darkness overtook us.

There was a phantom-impact. Nothing happened.

I opened my eyes hesitantly. Darkness. I only peaked at it, through barely-open eyes. Then I noticed, as I opened my eyes fully, that my friends' faces – their pale, blank faces, with their chillingly empty eye sockets – appeared gaunt, almost skull-like. An icy dread creeped in and took hold of my heart as I hesitantly reached for them. "Guys—?"

They lunged toward me with terrible growls, and I flinched away again, but like the almost-tangible darkness around us, nothing happened. They never collided with me.

I hesitantly opened my eyes again. My friends had vanished. The darkness predominated the space, but... someone was there, behind the dark fog. I could sense them. It didn't take long to clear, it gently blew away without a hint of a breeze.

It revealed the human, gasping, holding onto some solid mass of darkness, of shadow, as it held her up by her neck.

She kicked in an attempt to fight the darkness – now, I could almost recognize the shape of a Pokémon in the solidified mass of shadow – as it turned a menacing, glowing red eye in my direction. "You don't need to worry about this," the figure told me, its voice hissing and low as it effortlessly suspended the human in the air. "I'm taking care of it. It won't change anything you're doing right now."

Fear kept me rooted in place like a Vine Whip wrapping around my legs. I wanted to run, but I couldn't. Even if I could, I had a feeling it wouldn't matter. This presence had brought me here. It held me in this space.

Wait... The human was familiar to me. Similar to the girl in the pictures with the Treecko and Grovyle; though different in this living instance.

Her hair was in a messy Ponyta-tail, as if she hadn't been able to fix it for a long time. She had a medium-grey vest on and a dull yellow long-sleeve shirt on underneath it, along with nearly-knee-length shorts that had a yellow insignia of a Zapdos on them, and some black-and-white running shoes. Her eyes held a rage that no one could ever match as she glared at the Pokémon with bared teeth, her eyes almost glowing like the shadow's, even as her face turned red from the strangulation.

She managed to breathe out a small flicker of flame before part of the shadow shot up and suffocated it, covering her mouth as well. "We don't want any of that, now, dear," he told her. "We have an audience, after all. You're safer this way, aren't you?" He turned to me. "Aren't you?" he repeated, maliciously, insistently. "You won't have much more trouble. I will make sure of it. Go back to sleep, dear."