[CW: Short Story/Feedback] a day in the life of zephyr

[Zephyrus the Priestess]

You stroll along the once-bustling highway of dead, rusting cars and trucks with a blue-ringed Umbreon and a Houndoom, who constantly sniffs the air, tailing you closely.

There is no noise; only deafening silence.

Until a low, guttural sound breaks the dead air- you realize it’s Cerberus’ snarling.

The empty, upturned bus beside you rattles violently.

What resembles to be a rotting man with a torn coat and loose, baggy pants stumbles out.

He catches sight of you.

He grins maliciously from ear to ear.

The world flashes black and white.

A wild highway man would like to battle!

Wild highway man sent out Graveler and Nidoqueen!

The waste is watching...

The Nidoqueen appears rather ragged and scared; it is practically quaking in fear. There appear to be bruises and lacerations all over its body.

You take note of this and thank Arceus your face is completely covered by a modified airsoft mask, made so that it filtered the toxic fumes of this post-apocalyptic wonderland so absurd it often made you laugh.

You have never liked to give anything away about yourself.

Go, Chaos and Cerberus!

The hellhound advanced without awaiting an order; he already knew what to do.

Cerberus used Iron Tail! It's super effective!

The Graveler reeled, but recovered to take advantage of his proximity.

The foe's Graveler used Rock Tomb!

Chaos intervened with Protect!

The foe's Nidoqueen disobeyed orders!

The man yowled at the Poison-Ground type in rage, spouting profanities and threats, something involving hot water...

For a brief moment both Dark-types share eye contact with you. You swiftly draw a finger across your neck.

And the meta broke.

With a growl, the shiny Umbreon leapt over the Houndoom towards the four-armed golem, with an umbral ring of energy pulsating forth, radiating menace and the blackest of auras; Cerberus, using the distraction, bound toward the offending would-be attacker, baring fangs licked by flames-

Only to be slammed full-force by the Nidoqueen into the ground. You nearly crack, but reason with yourself that it wasn't the Nidoqueen's fault, it was forced by its bond to its Trainer- disgusting piece of scum and undeserving as he was- to retaliate and protect him...

An insane amount of flames burst forth like a gigantic flower on fire right into the Drill Pokemon; Cerberus appeared to struggle to get up, but shook himself vigorously as the Nidoqueen yelped in pain.

And the ground heaved as if it hadn't heaved enough on the day Arceus quit his day job and abandoned the world, leaving the Creation Trio to rampage-

You stumble, holding onto the nearest vehicle for dear life, as your Pokemon, the Nidoqueen, and the highway man fall over, struggling to keep upright- especially your Houndoom and the Nidoqueen.

The car's door pops open and a definitely rotting, decaying hand, the yellowed bones showing, the meat already slopping off like slimy slugs or overgrown maggots waves as if to grab hold of you.

You slam the door shut, severing the damn thing before the zombie can scratch you. You make a mental note to have Cerberus cremate the entire highway when you're through with this nonsense.

Turning back to the ensuing battle, you realize that the Dark-Fire type was already nearing exhaustion, still spewing flames at the hesitantly advancing overgrown blue rabbit-monster-thing; Chaos, having regained her balance, danced around the Graveler, which appeared to be stumbling over its feet, its eyes unfocused.

The man was nowhere to be found.

He wasn't quiet enough, though.

You turn, quickly, and stop the knife from finding its way home into your chest or head- whichever it was didn't matter, you stopped it and you're still breathing, not necessarily alive, but whatever, onto the narrative- and knee the bastard in between the gut and sternum, making him crumple to the ground.

You then proceed to kick the stuffing out of him, screaming nonsense and many things at once- execrating his very existence, calling him unworthy to even have been a registered Pokemon Trainer, expressing pity for his poor Nidoqueen so obviously abused in unspeakable manners, demanding the whereabouts of his base if he even had one, and many more, never giving him a chance to reply or breathe...

The Pokemon all watch you, stunned.

At least until the Graveler roars- rumbles?- in rage and leaps, curling up into a ball and rolling at you at top speed.

Spurred on by adrenaline, both Chaos and Cerberus intercept; the former casting a protective barrier in front of you to negate the impact; the latter exhaling noxious clouds to further discombobulate the sentient boulder.

Just before it can run your only friends over, it careens to the right, swerves to the left, towards you again, but off by a mere centimeter, and a horrible scream pierces the air, followed by an unpleasant crunching sound-

The Graveler conveniently finishes itself off in addition by tumbling into an open fissure, possibly a result of a terrible cataclysmic battle that took place eons ago, and more recently, a year or less ago...

... leaving only the Nidoqueen, devastated and shocked.

It began to scream and weep.

What could you do?

No. What have you done?

The wailing continues on for minutes, hours- the cliches of time stretching into yawning infinities...

And you can't take it anymore, neither can either of your Pokemon, who whimper and nudge you gently, and you pull out the pistol dangling from your thigh.

With a silent BANG, you end the broken Pokemon's misery.

You defeated the wild highway man.

The cringe-inducing quiet filled the air again, after that.

You shake your head slowly. It’s been almost a year of this sort of thing happening; you’ve almost completely grown so numb to it all.

You’re just... so tired.

The dry snout of Cerberus touches your leg. You look down into his liquid black-brown eyes; the gradual weight on your left foot tells you that Chaos has sat down on your foot in her strangely reassuring way.

You kneel and hold them both so close to you.

Where would you be now, without them? The only two remaining beings in the world whom you trusted completely, without whom you would have surely succumbed to madness and insanity and the bleak pointlessness of it all already, if you haven’t.

The moments fly into a space unknown and the three of you continue to embrace.

When you look up, the hazy starless smoky night has stretched overhead.

It’s too dark to continue on, even with Cerberus’ flame and Chaos’ lovely glowing rings that pulsed with her every heartbeat, thrumming with the power of the moon.

You opt, reluctantly, to return to the Base.

No point in staying outside, although inside was just as bad, really. Just a little bit safer. Unless the building collapsed on itself.

You stroll along the once-bustling highway of dead, rusting cars; it was alive again, for now. Now that it was all on fire. Couldn’t be too careful, nowadays.

All in a day’s work.

Edited June 18, 2016 by Zephyrus the Priestess