Broken Souls

The First Challenge

Three days down.

We've started dreaming together. At first I thought it was a coincidence, that the sensation of flashing had just transferred into my subconsciousness at some point, but when the group reported similar sensations and our dreams turned into a mix of vivid Pokemon sensation and my own meandering midnight narratives, we became sure that we were dreaming as one. Last night we were wandering a sleek stone and river covered landscape together but the night before we were all sharing the same viewpoint. I wake up halfway through the night on a bus to Vermillion, Fang spread over my lap, and miss the place as if it was somewhere I'd actually been and not a figment of our collective imaginations.

Travelling like this reminds me of my first journey, when I'd sometimes give up and collapse wherever instead of going to a hotel or popping a tent open. I see young trainers doing it in the streets sometimes, falling over like those now-infamous fainting Gogoat onto benches or Pokemon center couches.

One Pokemon who hasn't shared in this in any way is Suicune. In fact, I haven't a clue where they are. Even Ethan was part of it the first night, when he slept outside with us a half-mile from the designated campground, but he's been more sociable since his transformation anyways.

The bus comes to a halt in the morning, settling onto its wheels with an anxious sigh. I'd liked to have spent the time we wasted on the bus training but all we really lost was a few hours of sleep. As for what we've gained... well, that's another matter. The Kanto transportation system is a blessing that has cut our travel time in half. It was one of the few good ideas Suicune proposed thus far.

I try to pick up our bond, flimsy as it is, and manage to pinpoint them as somewhere between ten and thirty miles away in any given direction, close to water. Oh boy. Suicune has insisted that they need to attend to their duties and has since given up their official "position" on the team. I was worried at first about owning them without keeping them in a Poke Ball or anywhere nearby, for that matter, but then I remembered that having them on the team would mean putting up with Suicune for more than two minutes at a time and found myself much more willing to oblige.

I let Ethan out when I get out of the bus, stretching out my pains from being cooped up in the back seat, and the Lugia yawns. His large, pink, healthy tongue lolls out of his mouth and I see his lean, powerful muscles shift instead of bone beneath his skin. He blinks as he looks to me, tail waving a bit in spite of himself, and then his demeanor shifts when he sees the team. Minerva's the only one who's overtly glaring at him, but the others range from concerned to upset. Few of them look happy to see him.

"Morning," he says. "Sorry. Again."

Minerva rolls her eyes. Reginae's nostrils flare and he exhales a long sigh, steadying himself. Fang can't be mad at anyone for more than ten seconds and in a great display of completely misjudging the mood (to my relief) he calls, "Morning to you too, big guy!"

Hycanith? I can't read Hycanith.

On the bright side, Ten has also been a stalwart defender of Ethan ever since the battle with Suicune. It's going to be hard for the team to ever forgive Ethan for letting Red into the data of the game, because the alternative is placing the blame on me instead, and no matter how many times I accept said blame they're not going to get at my throats for it because they trust me more than they trust themselves and if my relationship with them goes downhill, so does our entire team dynamic.

"Do you want to go for a swim?" I ask Ethan, looking towards the harbors. Ethan gives me a quick, subtle nod, nervous energy and a silent pleading in his eyes. We approach the harbors of Vermillion and he presses off the dock with his huge hands and folds them against his side, shooting downwards into the sun-touched waters below.