Wiping his brow, Longwei appraised the blue liquid in the pot.
The result was… unsatisfactory.
Although the potion he crafted was by and far superior to the basic ones he had purchased, it still wasn't good enough for him. Longwei had always lived frugally, and couldn't help but feel the sting of wastefulness after making a low-quality potion with high-quality ingredients. Even becoming the Supreme Heavenly Iridescent Transcendental Emperor and amassing vast hordes of wealth during the era of Celestially Resplendent Auspicious Prosperity couldn't shake this mindset; he had simply had to claw his way up from the bottom and fight for scraps too many times to be okay with wastefulness. His only solace was that, due to his unfamiliarity with the ingredients and this world's energies, he couldn't tell exactly how badly he messed up.
Alas, he had agreed to make the potion before he knew any better. He had no one to blame for this wastefulness but himself.
As Longwei breathed deeply in hidden frustration, the two scientists were staring intensely at the data on the screen, hoping the final bits of data would provide some last-second insight.
"So," Rowan said to his colleague, "did anything click into place for you?"
The scientist smiled sheepishly, but there was an excited spark behind his look. It was the spark of a scientist who had just uncovered an entirely new field of research, eager to dive into the unknown. "Not at all."
Rowan shared in his excitement, but didn't dare let it show lest he ruin the gruff persona he's built up. "Hrmph. Nor for me. Mr. Sun, may we examine the potion itself?"
"One moment." Longwei said, pulling an empty vacuum flask from his bag of holding. He'd have preferred a properly enchanted gourd, but such things simply didn't exist on this world's market. Even if they did, he certainly wouldn't be able to afford one.
Longwei carefully poured some of the pot's contents into his bottle using a sauce ladle, stopping only once it was fully filled. "Now you may." he said, stepping away to the side. Luxio however went over to the couches and curled up beside the ottoman Poochyena was resting at.
Rowan grunted in acknowledgment and approached the pot. Pulling a few glass flasks and a funnel from the inside of his jacket—which Longwei noted had a few bags of holding of varying sizes attached on the inside—Rowan then carefully poured the potion juice into each flask until the pot was empty. Next he took the technological doodads away, placing them on the bar counter and nearby his bulky laptop.
"Well Mr. Sun, this was most unexpected. I'm not quite sure what you did, so I can't exactly know what will come of this, but the readings alone were very interesting."
The door creaked opened, and Cynthia returned to the room with Lucario. She had a calm expression, but both Longwei and Rowan could see through her facade and detect the nervousness hidden underneath, one because he was an expert at such things and the other because he had known her for some time.
"Mr. Sun," Rowan began, "the potion is medicinal, yes?"
"It is." Longwei replied.
Rowan looked to Cynthia, who looked back at him blankly with Lucario's palm resting on her shoulder. Two seconds of their stare-off passed.
Lucario rolled his eyes and shook her roughly by the shoulder, breaking her out of her trance. "Oh, um, yes. It should be fine to use."
Longwei was initially confused by this strange interaction. Why would Rowan defer to the junior like this? But then he remembered how much money the girl casually bribed him with for mere displays of skill, and suddenly it made sense: this girl was a young master with great influence who Rowan was obligated to curry favor with. Perhaps her family was also responsible for most of this lab's funding? Longwei nodded to himself, satisfied with that answer. He was so smart.
"I see." Rowan harumph'd. "Well, as a proper man of science I refuse to take any risks. Since you've been training for the last hour, would Roserade be willing to test the potion's effectiveness first-hand? We simply need more data, and her poison typing will ensure nothing goes wrong." He then tapped two fingers on the bar counter where the wackily shaped data gatherers were now positioned.
Despite the apparent lack of trust, Longwei wasn't angry. He couldn't blame the man for being cautious around a man he'd just met, and certainly wouldn't hold it against him for being ethical in his pursuit of knowledge. If anything, Longwei found it worthy of praise how careful he was being to not cause harm.
Cynthia gave an "Okay" before releasing her roserade onto the counter. The small plant pokémon with red and blue roses for hands and white petals for hair held herself gracefully despite the several rough marks she had gained from her earlier training.
The two scientists quickly began to attach thin patches that looked like the things used with heart monitors onto Roserade's body. The rosey pokémon complied patiently as the wired patches were stuck to her, lifting her arms when needed but otherwise remaining still as a plant.
As Cynthia was a person who frequently worked with two professors, her pokémon were accustomed to dealing with them. Even Spiritomb was patient enough to work with scientists… well, so long as she could watch a horror movie at the same time. Cynthia had trouble getting used to that fascination of Spiritomb's at first, and she still got nightmares from it sometimes, but it was worth it to make her precious ghost girl happy. Using those nightmares as an excuse to cuddle with her and the rest of the team was just a bonus. Nobody ever understood Cynthia when she said spiritomb were simply misunderstood waterbeds, but it was their loss.
Next Rowan held up a vial of the potion. Roserade instinctively outstretched her arm, angling a roughed up spot towards Rowan. "Thank you, but no. This potion is meant for drinking."
Roserade nodded, and took the vial in her rosey hands. Somehow, against all logic, her rose petals kept a firm grip on the vial as she tilted her head back, drinking it all in one.
The two scientists each split both of their focus on the laptop screen showing the feed of data and on Roserade herself.
Roserade was the first to react. A puzzled look came across her face, and her eyes were immediately drawn to her own arm where the most notable damage was. She knew potions were much more effective than berries, but that came at the cost of taking several hours or more to get the job done. Yet to Roserade's surprise, this potion was working immediately!
"Th-this is…!" the scientist said in amazement, now focusing all his attention on the computer screen after noticing a familiar trend in the data.
Rowan diverted a bit more attention towards the screen, but still kept Roserade in his peripheral vision to not miss what was happening.
Before everyone but the one scientist's eyes, Roserade's minor wounds began to vanish. Frayed petals smoothed out, scratched green leaf-like skin began to mend, and any internal damage began to undo itself. In the space of five breaths Roserade looked completely unharmed, with only some smatterings of dirt left to suggest that anything had happened to her at all.
"Phenomenal…" the scientist muttered, turning his attention back to Roserade and finding her completely healed. "It read just like a healing move."
Rowan sighed. After looking at the screen for a few moments, he retrieved his wallet and took out a large sum of cash. "Mr. Sun, I don't know how much this data is worth, and I don't know how long it will take for us to truly understand, but for now I'm sure it's worth at least this much."
Longwei stared hungrily at the large sum of cash, but ultimately shook his head. "I'm sorry, but I have already been paid by the young Cynthia."
"Then consider it payment for the potion itself. If my initial observation is correct then there's nothing like it on the market, rendering it essentially priceless. Furthermore, I would like for you to visit the lab in the future and demonstrate more of your arts for the purpose of research, so consider this a gesture of goodwill and incentive to return at a later date."
Longwei considered that. "Very well. However," he then leveled at Rowan a gravely serious look, making Rowan steel himself, "I must warn you that you must, under no circ*mstances, attempt to recreate what I have demonstrated, nor should you ever attempt to walk a path towards it. If you try, then you and whoever you convince to follow you will surely meet a terrible end. The spiritual arts are just as wondrous as they are volatile, and many a practitioner has been the maker of their own painful demise by walking this path without the proper guidance. This is not a point I can stress enough. If you try, you will die."
Of course, death was not certain. But avoiding death when cultivating blindly was as likely as winning the lottery several times in a row.
"Furthermore, I ask you to keep my presence here a secret. I do not desire fame, nor do I desire to be held responsible should you let word slip and in doing so lead many an aspirant to an early grave. Let it be as if we never met."
Rowan nodded seriously, conveying that he understood the dangers involved. "I will, but do not worry. Even if word somehow gets out and others attempt to become an Aura Guardian to craft such potions of their own, there is no danger. Nobody will reach your level where danger truly sets in on their own, not unless you were to spread your teachings. Many have tried to become Aura Guardians, after all, and none have injured themselves from the attempt."
By Rowan's side, the scientist who will probably never be named nodded in understanding and agreement. "Indeed. The Rota Kingdom has tried sponsoring potential aura wielders many times and never have any of them been harmed by the process. To add to this, many hopeful trainers have attempted to unlock aura powers on their own only to be met with the same harmless failure. I truly doubt any others will accidentally stumble upon whatever methods you use, Mr. Sun."
Longwei hummed. With those words, they had implied the Aura Guardians didn't know what they were doing well enough to cause serious self harm. For all Longwei knew, Aura Guardians simply blindly meditated until their body naturally saturated with Qi, rather than focusing concentrated refinement on any of their body parts. Such a method would never be enough for a breakthrough, but it was mostly harmless and would give the illusion of progress up to a certain point. By then most mortals would call quits and simply accept that that was as far as they could go. If this were truly the case, then what danger was there?
Of course, Longwei would still feel guilty if there was a sudden string of deaths because of careless juniors attempting to emulate him and somehow discovering how to properly conduct the Qi Refinement stage, but the only way to fully avoid that would be to either never practice the spiritual arts again or to hide away like a hermit. Neither of those were options he'd accept; Longwei needed to return to Yongyu within the next couple decades to ensure Xu Hao's death before the traitor could recultivate his power.
"Very well. I cannot guarantee a visit in the near future, but I swear to eventually return." Longwei said, taking the significant(to him) sum of offered money.
Besides, if Longwei sought to form a new sect in this world then it would be advantageous if Rowan were a friend. Perhaps the man himself would refuse to become a disciple, but Rowan could still refer scholarly aspirants to Longwei. Scholarly souls made for much better disciples than hot headed youths high on their own egos, even if a scholar's wild experimentation could pose a danger to themselves and others— but that was what senior oversight was for.
"Now then," Rowan said, "I would love for you to stay and talk about all sorts of topics, but you have given more than enough for us to think upon for quite a while." He then held out a hand. "It was a pleasure meeting you, Mr. Sun."
Longwei shook his hand with a manly grip. "Likewise, Professor Rowan. May heaven's will favor you." Longwei gave a short polite bow to the unnamed scientist, who quickly returned the gesture, then to Cynthia and Lucario, who each nodded back a bit awkwardly.
With polite farewells given, Longwei left the scholarly men to their research and made his way to the front exit with Luxio by his side and Poochyena cradled in his arms. However, two more accompanied him.
Coming to a stop in the middle of the reception room, Longwei turned to address the nervous girl following him, keeping his face calm and his tone gentle to avoid intimidating her. "Was there something you needed, junior?"
"Where did you get Poochyena?" she asked tactlessly.
Lucario stiffened, but otherwise didn't react.
Longwei blinked. "A peculiar question." he said, narrowing his eyes slightly. "While I'm not sure what prompted it, I can proudly say that Poochyena willingly chose to become my disciple after liberating himself from the clutches of a pair of bandits."
Cynthia looked at Poochyena for a moment and quickly connected the dots. "So, you got Poochyena from those criminals you fought?"
"It was Poochyena himself who ultimately made the choice, so it is more like he 'got' me. But yes, Poochyena took the chance to free himself from their clutches after I had rendered the rest of the bandits unconscious, shattering his pokéball of his own free will and electing to become my newest disciple."
Understanding dawned on Cynthia, followed by a heavy sense of unease. She felt that would certainly explain why Officer Jenny could be telling the truth despite the aura wielder being innocent.
It would be easy to prove Longwei's innocence. All they had to do was turn themselves in and have Poochyena claim they willingly left their trainer for Longwei.
"Officer Jenny came looking for you while you were making the potion," she said bluntly, "she said you were wanted for pokémon theft and I told her you weren't here because, uh, I didn't know what else to do. All we need to do to clear your name is have Poochyena vouch for you."
Poochyena shifted slightly in Longwei's arms, a bit uncomfortable with the idea that his previous human would try taking him back despite not being a nice trainer.
Longwei stared at her with an appraising eye, checking for the slightest hint of deceit. Seeing none, he replied honestly. "I'm afraid I won't be doing that."
"What?! But why?" She had no idea why Longwei wouldn't do this, it would be so easy to clear his name!
"Because I have powerful enemies." he calmly replied with an intense aura, making the air itself feel heavy to Cynthia. "Ask yourself this, junior: why would a criminal report to the police?"
"To, uh, lighten their sentence? Try to prove their innocence somehow?"
"In differing contexts you may be right, but here they stand to gain nothing from such charges when, as you say, it would be so easy to clear my name. If all I had to do to prove them liars was to let Poochyena speak once, why would they even make the accusation?"
Cynthia thought for a bit, but couldn't think of any good reason.
"This experienced senior will tell you why: the criminals have been pressured into making the accusation by someone mightier than them so that a trap could be set to capture me."
She was shocked. Longwei was right, there was no reason to make the accusation! A conspiracy had just passed by her and she didn't even notice! There had to be someone pressuring them into it. What kind of enemies had this righteous aura wielder made for such a terrible plan to be laid out against him?!
Longwei slapped his bag of holding and produced the teleportation voucher he had received last night, checking its viability and listed addresses once more. "It is most unwise to dance to the tune of your enemy. Always remember that, junior."
Cynthia shook her head, seeing through the elaborate scheme instantly and coming to a critical realization. Avoiding the police would only be playing into their hands a different way: it would make Longwei a wanted man! "Wait, we still have to clear your name or else you'll become wanted criminal just as they planned."
Longwei scoffed. "I am no fool, I saw through that ploy as well. However, they are expecting me at a Sandgem police center. I will defy their expectations by arriving at one of another city."
He turned around to leave, but Cynthia stopped him by holding onto his sleeve. Luxio gave her a warning look. "Hold on, hold on! You stand out too much looking like that. We need to hide your identity."
'What is this child talking about?' he thought to himself, thinking it absolutely foolish that anybody would be able to easily spot a white-haired white-robed white-eyed elder among the crowds. 'Old men in white robes like me are practically everywhere, you can't even go a minute without seeing an elderly cultivator walking arou—!'
Then it finally hit him: there weren't old cultivators everywhere. Perhaps it was because he never cared much for crowds, perhaps it was because he was too fascinated by the many pokémon walking around to notice the odd lack of old men among the humans, or perhaps it was a combination of several reasons. Whatever it was, he'd somehow not noticed this until having it pointed out to him.
Longwei considered wildly changing his usual attire to throw off his pursuers, but something deep down rejected that idea wholesale. Unbeknownst to him, the same mystical force that compelled criminals to wear matching uniforms was working its magic on Longwei, compelling him to stick to his iconic cultivator's robes.
However, donning a temporary disguise was not completely unacceptable.
He hummed. "I don't exactly have a different set of clothes or a disguise to wear. Perhaps I can borrow something from Professor Rowan…?"
"Oh, I have just the thing!" Cynthia said excitedly, running behind the reception desk and grabbing her dark blue backpack that had bits of red near the center, similar to a garchomp.
Stuffing a hand into its large opening, Cynthia pulled out a loose black robe with sleeves that were long enough to drag along the ground and a built-in shoddy cowl with a pointed top. Even at Longwei's impressive height, the sleeves and the bottom ends of the robe would drag along the ground. It looked like something a hag witch would wear.
Next she pulled out a very long, very puffy, and very unkempt-looking black wig. It also looked like just the sort of thing you'd see on a hag witch.
Lastly she took out a red oni mask that had large protruding tusks and two large horns. It completely clashed with the feeble hag witch aesthetic the other two items had going.
Wearing such things would only make him look like a fool.
"Wearing such things would only make me look like a fool." Longwei said.
"But it would work." Cynthia succinctly replied with a sure smile.
Longwei stared at the items, and his eyes lingered on the oni mask. It was, somehow, far too similar in appearance to the demons and demonic cultivators he had occasionally slain on Yongyu. If the tusks were removed and it were painted purple instead, it would almost look like the demon that had emerged from Willow's corpse. "… Do you have any other masks?"
Cynthia pulled out one of those old timey gas masks that fully wrapped around the head and had what was essentially a tin can drooping in front of the mouth area. As if that didn't look cumbersome enough, the lens were a foggy yellow that would no doubt be annoying to see through. "These are the best I have that'll do the job. Take it or leave it."
Longwei set Poochyena down and took the oni mask. At least it had eye holes rather than tinted coverings.
Since all the clothing was loose and easy to wear as an outer layer, Longwei simply put the items over his existing clothes in the reception room. The barest hints of his white robes and beard could be seen above the collar of the black robe, and if one looked closely they could see strands of white hidden underneath the black wig, but he just had to hope people either wouldn't notice or would consider it part of the outfit. His white eyes also stood out from behind the mask, but they were only really visible from certain angles and would likely be considered part of the outfit as well.
"You look great!" Cynthia said with a smile. "I'll walk with you so people don't pester you on the way there, and so I can vouch for you at the next city's police station."
Or so she claimed. Her real reasons for coming with him were a combination of boredom, interest, and ambition. Her badges from last year still count for a couple more, so all she really had to do until the next conference was train and help the professors, leaving her rather bored from the monotony. But why would she do that when suddenly a mysterious aura wielder appeared, one not even associated with the Aura Guardians? Being an aura wielder was already interesting enough, but a rogue aura wielder was way more interesting. No way she was just letting him walk away without spilling everything, he might know things about their world's history that have been lost to time. And hey, maybe he could teach her and her pokémon a thing or two? Lucario especially.
"This senior is in your debt, it seems." Longwei said with a bit of hesitation, feeling like a village idiot of sorts with his stupid outfit. He didn't like it one bit, but it was better than practically announcing himself to his enemies which are definitely there and definitely after him.
Longwei gave each of his pokémon a quick pat on the head before returning them to limit the identifying variables around him. The three of them—Longwei, Cynthia, and Lucario—then made their way through the city on foot.
(~)
After much walking and much staring from pedestrians, they finally reached their destination: a rather mundane looking building situated right next to the walled perimeter of the Sandgem Gym. The only thing that really set it apart from the many other office buildings was the symbol of two purple-pinkish concentric circles above its doors, signifying it as a building for teleportation services.
Although he didn't get the chance to see past the perimeter walls, he already knew that what lay inside the Sandgem Gym was vastly different from the Jubilife Gym. Two artificial mountains of hard rock towered upwards, one of them even rivaling the Sandgem Gym's stadium itself in size—although this stadium seemed to be a bit smaller than Jubilife's.
A number of Psychic pokémon could be seen on the mountains or in the skies around them: there were Psychic variants of braviary and some sigilyph flying about, some claydol hovering in the air or lying still on the rocks, a mr mime that was walking off a cliff's edge and stepping onto empty air as if nothing were amiss, a lone xatu atop the tallest mountain peak gazing directly into the sun, and many more.
Despite there no doubt being many pokémon training inside, it was relatively quiet. In contrast to the Jubilife Gym which had typhlosions duking it out with explosive bursts of fire and earth, the Psychics of Sandgem Gym much preferred their peace and quiet.
Longwei could barely hear synchronized chiming coming from the many chimecho inside, each of which were coordinating with their others to maintain a soothing harmony that seemed to help focus the mind. The Sandgem Gym had trained this group of chimecho to maintain a weak Psychic Terrain around the area at certain hours of the day to assist in Psychic training, a trick discovered recently by a member of their own gym. Of course Longwei did not know about the inner workings of the Sandgem Gym and could only hazard a guess that the chiming was responsible, since the energy's origin came from the same general direction.
Stepping into the teleportation building, Longwei quickly approached the front desk and handed the man the voucher without a word, seeking to keep his identity a secret to escape the police and his own humiliation.
The familiar man looked at the costumed individual disapprovingly, but accepted the voucher anyways. "This is…" His eyes narrowed, and he spotted some of Longwei's defining characteristics under the costume. "Ah, you are the gentleman I gave this to last night."
Longwei tensed his body, ready to spring into action at a moment's notice. He quickly gauged the man's tone and body language, checking for any malicious intent, then relaxed. 'He does not know I am wanted.'
The man glanced at Cynthia. "The voucher is only good for individual teleportation, but I suppose I can make an exception just this once out of consideration for what you went through."
The man scanned the voucher's bar code with a scanner. "Your intended destination?"
"Pastoria City." Longwei replied.
The man frowned. "I'm afraid that's not possible. Long-range teleportation over Mount Coronet is strictly forbidden due to the risks involved, even over its far ends. The closest we can send you is Sage Town, but from there you must take another means of transportation."
"I see," Longwei acquiesced, "then it shall be to Sage Town."
"Very well." He interfaced with his computer. "Your destination will be Sage Town." He then released his kadabra next to Longwei. "Kadabra, escort these clients to room 122. Mr Mime will carry out their teleportation."
Kadabra nodded. "Hah!"
The man then handed Longwei's voucher back to him. "I presume this is your first teleportation with us? Do not worry. Mr Mime is a veteran who served together with my late grandfather in the War of One Crown and Three Clans. He may be a bit eccentric, as most mr mime tend to be, but you could not be in better hands."
He cast a glance to Lucario. "You will be required to return your pokémon before teleportation and to verify your intended destination with the pokémon who will be teleporting you."
Cynthia consoled Lucario with a pat on the head before recalling him.
The man gestured to the door leading further in and gave them a practiced customer service smile. "Head on in to room 122, and enjoy the rest your day."
Kadabra hovered in the air as it lead them further inside. Once they reached room 122, Kadabra politely gestured to the door before teleporting away in a flash of Psychic energy. With only a slight bit of hesitation, Longwei went in first.
The inside of the dark room carried a lot more mystique than the rest of the mundane building. In the center of the space was a ritual array composed of two perfectly concentric circles made of a pinkish gemstone built into the smooth white quartzite flooring. The outer circle was surrounded by a number of evenly spaced metal poles that had psychic gems affixed to their top.
All of this was only visible thanks to the dim pinkish glow being passively produced by the psychic gems and the crystalline circles, casting a mystical aura throughout the room. The light from the hallway only served to add to its mystique, casting two ominous shadows from Longwei and Cynthia's form that stretched across the room.
Longwei's eyes were drawn upwards towards the room's one lone inhabitant. Seated on an invisible chair several feet above the array's center was a mr mime, who was pretending to read from an invisible book on an invisible balcony. Longwei knew that it wasn't a coincidence that Mr Mime's head happened to be facing the door's entrance, ensuring the pokémon could easily see anyone who enters through its pretend book.
Cynthia closed the door behind her and cleared her throat pointedly. "Ehem."
Mr Mime's eyes shot open in false surprise and he mimed lowering his book and raising his head to see who had made the noise. His mouth then opened in feigned shock, one of his hands hovering over it for emphasis, and he hurriedly closed his fake book to set it down on a fake surface next to his fake chair. Quickly standing on thin air he reached a hand to his side and swung an invisible door open, then hastily tip-toed down a completely nonexistent spiral staircase until he reached the center of the formation. Brushing a hand over his two protrusions of blue hair and wiping the dust off his shoulders, Mr Mime mimed clearing his throat and stepped to the edge of the formation, opening his imaginary house's front door with a smile.
Mr Mime looked up at them expectantly.
Cynthia rolled her eyes with a barely-concealed grin. "We're here for teleportation to Sage Town."
The Psychic Fairy pokémon nodded, and ushered them inside his fake house. Clapping his hands yet producing no sound, he pointed to the center of the array. Longwei and Cynthia stood where he had pointed, earning a thumbs up from the pokémon.
Mr Mime then walked away two steps and mimed climbing over a large crate, falling over once he cleared the top and crashing silently onto his side. He nursed his not-really-hurt elbow for a couple seconds before standing upright and placing his hands on invisible surfaces around himself, pretending to be stuck inside the open crate but really using that time to double-check everything was right and that none of the array was out of place.
Cynthia wanted to clap for Mr Mime's great performance so far, but she politely settled with claps that stopped just short of hitting the other hand to avoid breaking the silence.
Mr Mime gave her a showman's bow in thanks, then noiselessly slammed his hands together and sunk into a deep close-eyed focus. The array below them and the psychic gems around them began to glow a bit brighter.
Great fear began to well within Longwei despite his best efforts to clamp it down.
Truthfully, he was initially insulted when the man had handed him a teleportation voucher last night. So insulted in fact that he was completely stunned by it. If he still had his powers, Longwei might have slapped the man unconscious on the spot.
To Longwei, being told to teleport himself was the same as being told to kill himself. Long range teleportation was practically fatal back on Yongyu.
That's not to say teleportation didn't work, because it did. It was perfectly safe over short distances.
The problem, however, was that nothing had ever survived being teleported a long distance in all the Yongyu's history. The teleported subject would emerge on the other end either torn to shreds, horribly mutated and stricken with madness that nothing could cure, irreversibly possessed by a demon, or sometimes even failing to appear at all. It wasn't even viable for transporting non-living items, as problems would arise no matter its state of living.
But this was a different world with different rules, and apparently in this world long-distance teleportation was a fairly common, albeit expensive, thing. Longwei had nothing to fear other than the idea that somebody else was teleporting him and could, in theory, deliver him anywhere without warning. If this Mr Mime was in league with his enemies then Longwei could only consider himself doomed. He greatly doubted that possibility, but it was a fear that persisted nonetheless.
Thirty heartbeats passed, and by now Mr Mime was scrunching his face in… was that confusion? Worse still, some of the psychic gems began flickering out of sync with the others.
Longwei considered asking what was wrong, but felt it would be unwise to break Mr Mime's focus. Cynthia was of a similar state of mind.
Mr Mime strained himself hard enough for his arms to begin visibly shaking, the pokémon looking to be struggling intensely as the flickering only grew more and more discordant.
Sensing that his audience had been fully hooked, he suddenly shut off all the psychic glowing except from the gemstones directly underneath him, casting a fancy lighting upon himself. He took a drink from an imaginary juicebox, then gave his guests a smug grin.
"Ugh!" Cynthia said in annoyance, realizing it was all an act.
Longwei's eyes narrowed in annoyance. If he weren't so paranoid he might have found it entertaining, but in his current situation he was anything but receptive to such pranks.
Mr Mime simply stuck his tongue out the side of his mouth and looked away, playfully tapping a knuckle to the side of his own head.
"Okay, okay you've had your fun and it was a good act." Cynthia pleaded. "Can we get on with the teleportation now?"
The pokémon nodded and raised his arms in mock surrender. Once more clapping his hands together without a sound, he began to actually focus on Teleport this time. The glow in the gems was much more pronounced this time, and—
Longwei, with his superior senses honed from countless life-or-death experiences, saw it the instant it happened. Mr Mime's mouth lost its smile ever-so-slightly, while his eyes widened by the barest amount. The speed at which these two things were happening implied something was going terribly wrong.
'I swear if this is another act I'm going to lodge a formal complain—!' Longwei began to think, but then what happened next disabused that notion entirely.
Because, for the first time since meeting them, Mr Mime made a sound. "Mime!" the pokémon cried out, their face one of genuine alarm.
The clap of a Teleport rang out, and the world warped around them. It felt to Longwei as if he were tossed into a powerful whirlpool that was dyed a myriad colors, its fierce waters throwing him about wildly yet somehow never making him fall from his upright stance.
It was only due to his superior fortitude and experience with discombobulating effects that he didn't immediately hurl from the strange and tumultuous experience.
Longwei began to raise his guard even before the Teleport finished. Since his body had yet to be completely reinforced with Qi, he opted to actively channel Qi throughout his body for a temporary reinforcement. The drain on his newly-bolstered reserves wouldn't be too bad.
Next he cast out his spiritual senses, ensuring that he had a full 360 degree of vision and would detect most threats that would be nearby. It wouldn't detect somebody approaching into melee if they also suppressed their spiritual signature but it would detect almost everything else.
Soon the Teleport finished and Longwei pushed his senses to maximum overdrive so that he could process everything as fast as he could. Time seemed to slow for him as dangerous amounts of Qi channeled into his eyes and mind.
The first thing he noticed was that he and the others had landed in a large grassy clearing. In the distance was the ever-present Mount Coronet, and he knew from its shape and angle that he was to its south-southwestern side, which means that the Teleport had indeed brought them closer to Sage Town but had somehow missed its mark. In the nearer distance was a mighty river that looked to be many miles wide.
A red-headed girl who looked no older than 10 was close by and seemed to be in the middle of running away. She was wearing ragged clothing and was looking back at them—'no, not at us, but past us!'—with a terrified expression. If Longwei wasn't more concerned with other matters, he might have wondered how such a young child planned to cross such a wide river.
He did, however, wonder what she was running from.
Not even a heartbeat had passed as Longwei made these observations, his many years of experience allowing him to process and make sense of the sheer overload of information that was pouring into his consciousness.
In the next instant his spiritual senses finally returned with information. As Longwei had expected from the girl's terror, there was indeed a threat behind him. What he hadn't expected however was for an attack to already be on its way and approaching fast!
Longwei commanded even more of his Qi to bolster his body, using the extra amounts in his legs and torso to whirl around as fast as he could.
As he turned he saw the much-faster Mr Mime cross their arms together like an X, then flourish them out wide as if he were stopping a rolling boulder with his bare hands.
"MR MIME!" Longwei heard the pokémon shout. The approaching lights Longwei could only see from the corner of his vision suddenly shone brighter, and Longwei finished turning just in time to see a veritable wave of ranged attacks crash into the translucent barrier erected by Mr Mime. The thick barrage composed mostly of red flames and blackish purple explosions smashed upon the barrier, but Mr Mime held firm, keeping the onslaught of attacks at bay for now.
"M-mister mime!"
But if Mr Mime's harried words were any indication, the barrier would not hold for long. And indeed, the instant a new line of black rings crashed into it, the barrier began to crack.
Longwei dialed back the intense active Qi channeling to his eyes and mind before the strain could rupture something.
"Gabite use—!" Cynthia shouted in desperation, her hand going to her belt, but she was cut off by another shout from Mr Mime that was accompanied by a pinkish glow around both her and Longwei.
"Mime!"
The Teleport was much faster this time, happening in only an instant, and Longwei's senses were only barely disoriented by the instantaneous flash of colors. Of course, the consequence of a quickly-cast Teleport unaided by an array was that its range could not take them far enough to reach safety.
By the time Longwei realized they were only teleported a dozen feet to the side, a new attack was already upon them. Or more specifically, on Longwei.
One among the enemy seemed to have known where the Teleport would land and preemptively shot Dark rings of Qi directly towards its location, coincidentally at the exact spot where Longwei stood.
Seeing the attack coming, Longwei channeled Qi to his hands and thrust his palms forward in one quick motion, activating his new melee technique in the process. Dark Pulse met Force Palm, and the Fighting energy helped tip the scales just enough in Longwei's favor that his inferior cultivation and inexperience with the move held out against the attack.
Still, it was not perfect. His hands and the technique extending from them could only cover so much surface area and some broken blades of Dark Pulse managed to slip past to cut him in several places. His actively reinforced body kept the rings from cutting too deep, but already he was bleeding heavily.
He knew then and there that this opponent did not care to take them alive.
There was no followup attack, allowing them to finally see who they were up against.
A group of three adult men wearing what looked like black spec ops gear stood quite a distance from him, their faces obscured by black protective masks. Some distance behind them was a forest's treeline, possibly where they had ambushed the girl from. A number of powerful pokémon were positioned in front of them: two bisharp, two houndoom, one scrafty, a malamar, two krookodile, a skuntank, a drapion, a liepard, a weavile, and even a kingambit. Longwei's combat experience compelled him to focus on the details, and his keen senses let him see that each of them were haggard but otherwise still capable of fighting.
"Zat scamp brought in help!" a male voice with a french accent barked out. "No witnesses, kill zem!"
"Oh my god!" Cynthia choked out in fright. Her hand shot to her pokéball belt, but that proved unnecessary as each of her pokéballs shook and snapped open on their own, releasing her team in a ring in front of her. Meanwhile, Longwei's own bleeding hand went to release Luxio, who evidently had not yet learned how to forcefully break out of her pokéball like Cynthia's pokémon yet.
Cynthia's lucario, spiritomb, roserade, milotic, gastrodon, and gabite appeared instantly, followed shortly by Longwei's Luxio.
In the time it took for that to happen, the men had already reoriented their firing line to face them. "Fire!" the lead soldier shouted, prompting a wave of flames and dark energy to fly towards Longwei's group.
A new barrier sprung into existence to meet the attacks courtesy of Mr Mime, but it only stopped the attacks for two seconds before shattering. However, that was all the time Luxio and Cynthia's team needed to return fire with their own attacks.
The barrage of mostly black and red was met with an opposing barrage of multi-colored attacks. Black Shadow Balls fired from randomly changing locations of the enraged Spiritomb's spread out form. Green blades of Leaf Storm slung rapidly from a desperately slashing Roserade. A beam of shearing white Flash Cannon shot out from Lucario's outstretched hands. A chilling Ice Beam fired from Milotic's mouth. A continuous Thunderbolt arced out from Luxio. Stone Pillars from Gastrodon arose wherever the others weren't firing, rapidly being replaced anytime they shattered and easing the pressure on the rest of the group. And finally, Mr Mime was hastily erecting momentary barriers to catch any stray projectiles that managed to slip past, his veterancy helping him to focus despite the chaos with ease and compensate for any of the other's shortcomings.
The resulting explosion of attacks meeting attacks was practically deafening, and the air whipped about wildly as if there were a hurricane.
Gabite curiously wasn't part of the clash and was instead focusing her attention solely on the ground below her, fighting an invisible battle against the enemy's Ground users for dominance over the local earth.
The clash continued for several moments when Longwei suddenly felt a chill crawl upwards from his spiritual senses. Focusing those senses to determine the what and where, he detected a ghostly entity hidden within shadows cast by blades of grass on their left flank. The entity was not too far away and was heading directly towards them. No, heading directly towards him!
Without giving away that he was aware of their presence, Longwei prepared a large sum of his reserves so that he could strike down the enemy the instant they surfaced.
A single heartbeast passed, and Lucario twitched, sensing the opponent sneaking around their flank. But there was nothing he could do. His Flash Cannon was vital to their side's clash, if he let go of it for even a second there would be a breach!
It was only thanks to the enemy's own exhaustion that they couldn't force their way through Cynthia's, Longwei's, and Mr Mime's defense. They had been pursuing the psychic child for several days now, and despite their best efforts the child had somehow always escape capture. But she could never fully escape their reach, not as long as she was Shadow Tagged. With their numbers and skilled coordination, they've prevented her from fleeing towards a human settlement. Still, the hunt's worn them down.
But despite this difficulty things were going as planned. The child was fleeing further and further into the depths of the wilderness and they could tell she was wearing down faster than they were. Her managing to continue fleeing for so many days straight and even fight them off each time they launched an attack seemed ridiculous to them, but they chalked that up to her having extremely potent psychic powers never before seen in the history of mankind.
Her oddly capable resistance only raised her value to them, and because of the three chips hooked into the back of their necks that subtly manipulated them into working for the betterment of their organization, they had to capture her and bring her back. Such a prize would be a boon for the collective.
The ghostly entity drew closer to Longwei, darting forward unseen by most from within the shadows. Once it was within striking distance, Longwei suddenly turned and dropped to a knee, sending a Force Palm directly into the grass's shadows! "Hrah!"
At that same instant, a clawed purple hand reached out, glowing with Ghostly energy. Force Palm met Shadow Claw, and Longwei's palm was pierced clean through!
"Gyah!"
The sableye surfaced its upper body as Longwei's hand was immobilized within its own and sunk another Shadow Claw directly through Longwei's left calf, piercing through his flesh like a fork through scrambled eggs!
"Keuk!"
His technique had done nothing to the beast! Out of desperation, Longwei lashed out with raw Qi, drawing from most of his reserves for the sake of preserving his own life. A colorless glow flared across Longwei's body, concentrated mostly near the sableye and forcing the pokémon fully out of its shadow! The 2 foot tall sableye was then blasted away by power of the intense non-elemental flare, landing back-first onto the grass several feet away!
An intense wave of fatigue set in for Longwei as his spirit lost most of its Qi, significantly weakening the Qi he was actively enhancing his body with. The effects of suddenly channeling less Qi throughout his body were unexpected. This was the only time he's had his cultivation reset such that he kept his dantian but lost his reinforced body, so it's something he's never experienced.
He toppled sideways to the floor, his vision slightly dimming around the edges. Something fell loose from one of his robe's pockets, but he had no time for useless thoughts. He knew better than to distract himself in the midst of life or death battle.
His left hand went into his bag of holding. There, he had two options.
He grabbed the dusk stone.
Taking the jagged stone in his bleeding left hand, he began to drink its highly-concentrated energies into his spirit, recklessly disregarding the consequences such careless cultivation with powerful artifacts could result in. A great change began to take place within his spirit, but he had no time to acknowledge it.
Longwei had tried to cultivate the dusk stone before during the train ride to Sandgem, but after even an instant of trying he could tell he was not yet ready for it. The elemental energies contained within were simply too dense and too aggressive; attempting to cultivate it before his own spirit could filter away the stone's own elemental influence could be dangerous. In the best case scenario he would find himself finishing the Elemental Spirit stage early and gaining a Dao pillar before he even reformed his dantian into a silver core. In the worst case his spirit would rupture, potentially resetting his cultivation once more.
Just as he began absorbing the stone's energies, Longwei also willed whatever dregs of physical energy he possessed to bring himself upright.
And just in time too, as the sableye was already up and lunging a claw at his throat from the left!
With speed unnatural to a base human he caught the Shadow Claw with his dusk stone inches before it could deal fatal damage. But despite stopping the attack's initial momentum, the tip of sableyes claw had already managed to pierce into his flesh.
Longwei mustered all the strength he could to keep the sableye from cutting deeper, even going so far as to shatter the small amounts of Qi he had permanently concentrated into his feet just for more usable Qi. The muscles within his feet coiled painfully and his bones fractured under their force as the Qi imbued within them were shattered and taken away. It was a miracle that Longwei even managed to avoid falling once more!
But still it didn't prove enough. Sableye possessed strength defying its smaller size, and managed to continue barely overpowering him. It looked at Longwei with a cruel smile, slowly pushing its claws further and further into Longwei's flesh despite his best resistance and gladly showing that it was winning this stalemate.
Somehow, Sableye's gemstone eyes gained a gleeful malice to them, and the pokemon's sharp toothy grin only widened. They brought their other hand into clear view, waving the fingers upon it playfully for but a moment, then swung its free claws for the back of Longwei's neck from the right! As Longwei only had one dusk stone, there was nothing he could do to resist. He brought his right arm up in a futile effort to halt the attack, but Sableye simply phased its ghostly arm right through. Three claws sunk into the back of his neck, searing his flesh with their potent Ghostly energy and pushing deeper towards his—
A large sphere of pastel-pink Qi suddenly crashed into Sableye and knocked it away. But that wasn't good, as it inadvertently caused the claws within Longwei's neck to be wrenched free and tear out large chunks of flesh! Visceral waves of pain shot through Longwei as the entire front half of his throat was ripped out while three gouges were left in the back of his neck. Blood sprayed from his severed arteries like fountains of red!
He couldn't even let out a scream of pain due to the blood rushing into his lungs unbidden, making him cough up blood!
Not losing his focus and not caring to know who had fired the pink attack, Longwei's hand let go of the dusk stone and shot into his bag of holding once more.
This time, there was only one option.
Already his consciousness was fading, the darkness around the edges of his vision closing in with speed and his body falling to a cold numbness. A girl's scream rang out as he fell to the grassy floor, but Longwei could not hear it, his ears already unable to do more than transmit dull thrumming and piercing tones.
Retrieving his cylindrical flask, Longwei hastily undid its seal with shaking, bloodied hands, then poured the healing potion directly down his torn-open throat, unable to even lift his head and drink properly.
It was the last action he took before the blades of grass by his face and the blue sky far above went completely dark. A fierce Roar soon joined by several others shook the area, followed by two strikes of lightning cast by the heavens that struck Longwei directly, but by then Longwei's ability to sense the physical world had left him.
Poochyena didn't really know what was happening, he couldn't see much from inside Longwei's robes. But he could hear the sounds of battle and see the flashes of light through the fabric, so he knew it wasn't good.
But then there was a thud, and Poochyena's pokéball fell out of the white robes and onto the grass. He could finally see.
Grass? So they were outside now? He thought they were being teleported somewhere indoors. Did it go wrong somehow?
He looked around, trying to make sense of his surroundings, and that's when he saw Longwei pull himself off the floor. A sableye lunged at Longwei, and Longwei stopped the attack with a dark purple stone. They fought for a moment more, and the sableye went for another strike, but then Mr Mime hit them with a Moonblast, knocking the sableye away. Poochyena tracked the small pokémon for a couple seconds as they were sent flying before looking back to Longwei.
Despite not needing to breathe inside his pokéball, Poochyena felt his breath hitch, and his brief life flashed before him.
He couldn't remember much from his time as a close-eyed pup. The most vivid memory he had of then was the warmth and the scent of his family. Even though he couldn't see anything, and even though his body couldn't walk quite right, he always felt a sense of comfort and safety when near their warmth and scent. Most else was too hard to remember.
However, he did vividly remember the day that comfort came to an abrupt end. Or was it night? He didn't know. But what he did know was that there was the loud sound of glass breaking and lots of barking. Next thing he remembered was a cold body with a smelly scent grabbing hold of him, and hearing his mother's howl fade into the distance.
Sometime after that he remembered drinking from a bowl of milk on the ground. It was okay, but it just wasn't… right.
By the time he could open his eyes and could really start to remember things, all he knew were rude humans and rude pokémon. And all of them were smelly and mean.
The human who became his first pack leader wasn't too bad, but they weren't much better than the rest. Blair was always yelling at him for not growling loud enough or looking scary enough or being strong enough.
And sure, they hunted humans, but they only ever took their stuff. They never did they something like…
Poochyena felt the sensation of bile rising up his throat.
Like that.
Luxio smelt a familiar scent behind her and heard her human fighting, but she couldn't afford to let up! She had to keep shooting back against the bad guys!
It took a bit, but eventually Mr Mime shot up another powerful barrier to give them some breathing room. Luxio took that time to check on her human and—
Her heart coldly skipped a beat. Her eyes lost focus. Time seemed to slow.
When she was but a cub, her father would always talk about his past. He told her stories about how he found a human lost in the forest one day, how they went on adventures together, and how they fought hard to keep this land, their home, safe.
The last of their stories together was about them fighting on the shores of Sinnoh's ocean. They fought against an evil enemy who wanted to invade their homeland and take everything from them. Father told her about how the humans united their three powerful clans once more to fight back against the crown, keeping the evil invaders from ruining everything and taking everything from them.
He said his human got hurt that day, which was why his human never visited Father afterwards.
Luxio, in her childhood naivety, simply thought that Father's human was injured and had to stay with the other humans so they could look after him and keep him safe. The forests and plains were no place for soft and weak humans, after all.
She never thought to question this story as she grew up. It simply never occurred to her to second guess the details of some of Father's stories.
But in that very instant, as Luxio watched her human's arm fall limp and blood spill from his open throat onto the ground, the veil of childhood naivety fell apart. In that single instant, Luxio realized the cold truth.
Father's human never visited because he couldn't visit.
Father's human was killed.
And now she would never have stories with her human like Father had.
The moment she made that realization, something inside her snapped. Her vision went red, and in her grief-stricken rage she could only think to scream.
AN: Hey guys, I figured out how to solve the finish-before-200k-words problem that I mentioned last chapter!
Hehe.
