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Chapter 88
Part 2
So imagine for a moment that you're a master thief Haxorus. Well, maybe not a master master – heavens, you're not nearly as good as Fern, or any color of Kecleon. But you're good enough to make a living, and you've earned a nice, juicy, two-star bounty on your head.
Imagine you come home after a long day of thievery, or scouting out your next location, or… maybe going to the park, whatever master thieves do on their off-days? I don't know. But you come home to your nice, cozy den that you've so cleverly hidden at the bottom of a pond in a general vicinity where sentient water-types aren't common.
Imagine that you swim down to the bottom of that pond and slip through your force-field tunnel, shake all the water out of your scales, and prepare to settle down for a nice relaxing evening of being safe and hidden from the world and basking in all your stolen riches!
That's exactly what our little dragon friend was in the mood for – just a nice, cozy night alone. It's really too bad that someone had to come along and ruin it.
This was two days after the assignment was given. The first day, I had Tallie keep watch over Kricket Pond until she spotted our resident dragon slither out of the water and go running off for the day. Once everything was clear, I let Adamant go explore the pond, and he found the hideout instantly. Once he confirmed there wasn't anyone else living down there, I let him stay in the water all he wanted, so he could soak up enough water for the all-important hydro-pump I needed from him. And oh boy, I feel like he spent all DAY down there! (He tries so hard to pretend that water isn't his favorite thing in the world now, but I mean come on, you're a FISH now, Adamant. You aren't fooling anyone, and I wish you'd quit trying to fool yourself, too…)
(Actually, now that I think about it, I don't think he even checked the den like I asked him to, but whatever, swimming is more important, I get it.)
Seriously, when Adamant finally came up for air after like six hours, he looked like a reborn Pokémon! His skin was two shades of blue more vibrant. He had this dumb, giddy smile on his face and a spark of life in his eyes I hadn't seen since the day he first evolved. I mean his eyes SPARKLED. And the way he scampered around, he kept squirming back-and-forth like he was still trying to swim on land! Aww, it was so adorable!
Zona noticed it too, and wouldn't stop staring at him with just as big of a bright smile. "I don't know about you," I whispered to Zona, "but I want to see him like this ALL the time. Don't you?"
"We're going to find a way," Zona whispered back, nodding to me. "We need to. We really do."
And that was all we needed on the first day, really. We didn't need items, and we didn't need to do any sneaking or raiding or anything. I had a feeling we already had everything we needed for my ridiculous plan to have a chance of working. It mostly all came down to me, anyway.
So then, on that all-important second day, when our dragon friend came home after their long day of doing dragon things… Just imagine the look on their face when they found a silly wittle kitten sneaking around in their den and pawing at all of their priceless stolen stuff!
I pretended not to see them, and I pawed their foe-seal orb around on the floor like it was a ball of yarn.
"Hissssss!" shouted the horrified Haxorus. "Who are you?! How did you find this place?!"
Oh. This was a dragoness! Interesting. I hadn't met a lot of these before! Well, except maybe Gemstone, if you count her. (And I do. To me, she's an honorary dragon, just like Charizard.)
I turned to smile at her. "Oh, hiiii!" I said in the most naïve and cute little voice I could make. "Oh, it's a DRAGON! Wow! This is your hoard, isn't it? This is all your stuff?"
Instant confusion! Perfect. If I were a big burly Pokémon or obviously some kind of bounty hunter, my head would have been sliced off right there. But thankfully since I was just a kitten, she hesitated for a moment. Exactly as planned! (Also, that's how I knew I had picked the right mission out of the two. The other one, who'd been known to kill children apparently, might not have been so merciful.)
"YES. It's mine. Everything here is MINE," said the dragoness, rushing up to me to swipe the orb from under my paws. "Now tell me, WHO are you, and HOW did you find my den?!"
"You can call me 'Kitty!'" I said, grinning at her. "What's your name? What can I call you?"
HISSSSSSS went the dragoness, and she got so angry that she nearly dropped the orb on the ground and shattered it. She picked me up and dangled me by the tail. "I don't think you understand what kind of trouble you've gotten yourself into, Kitty," she grumbled at me. "What makes you think you're allowed to just barge in to someone else's home uninvited? Do you have no manners? Do you realize how lucky you are that I didn't kill you the moment I saw you?"
"W-why would you kill me?" I said in fake horror, trying to pretend it didn't bother me that I was hanging upside-down. "I'm just a kid!"
"To defend my den," said the dragoness bitterly. "You might have been a feral. Or you might have been a thief."
"Hey! It's not like that!" I pleaded. "I'm not here to steal from you! Honest! I just went swimming in a pond and I found this place, honest! Put me down! Can I just talk to you for a little bit? Pweeease?"
"Why would you want to talk to me…?" she spat back.
"Because you're a DRAGON! I LOVE dragons!" I beamed. "I never get to talk to any dragons! And you have so much shiny stuff! You're SO COOOOL! I just want to, like, talk to you a little bit! Hear about how cool you are!"
Well, yep, she bought it. Told you, it's all in a dragon's pride! They love to be respected and admired. And I love to respect and admire them.
She put me down. She gave me a strange look. "Look, kid. Kitten. Life doesn't work like that," she told me sternly. "The world doesn't revolve around you. You need to watch your back. Not everybody wants to be your friend."
"Awwww!" I said, swishing my tail. "Why not?"
"Because… some Pokémon only care about themselves," she said, starting to walk away. "And some Pokémon are only going to pretend to be your friend in order to get things they want. You can't be so trusting. You're only going to get your heart broken."
"B-b-but… you aren't one of those Pokémon… are you?" I said with big, teary eyes. "I know all about bad Pokémon. But you aren't one of those, are you? Please tell me you aren't one of those Pokémon. Please tell me you're a good Pokémon!"
She hesitated for another good long moment. She thought about looking back at me, but she stopped herself. She thought about saying something, but she shut her jaw.
I took a step back. I pretended to be hurt. I folded my ears. "…Aren't… you?" I said in a small, miserable voice.
"What if I told you I'm not a very good Pokémon at all?" she said sourly. "What if I told you… I'm a wanted criminal? What would you think of me then? Would you still think I'm so cool?"
I took a deep breath. "I… I'm a wanted criminal too, actually…" I said softly. (I mean, it's technically true, isn't it?) "Being a wanted criminal doesn't necessarily make you bad. Unless… the stuff you did is really bad. But I'm not bad, I swear. I'm still a good Pokémon."
"Oh yeah? What'd you do?" snorted the dragon, like she didn't believe me.
"I was… I mean… I'm a thief, kind of," I said (still technically true). "I stole some money once. So yeah, you were right that I could be a thief. Because I am. But I… I didn't want to steal anything from here, I promise. I mean I was kind of thinking about it when I saw all this stuff here, but that's before you showed up, and the moment I saw you I knew – "
"Kid," said the dragoness, gleaming her red eye back at me in the torchlight. "You really want to know about me?"
I nodded at her. "Yeah?" I replied.
She turned away and flicked her tail, then got down on all fours so she could crawl like a lizard through a small hole in the wall. "Follow me, and I'll show you. Then you can decide for yourself whether or not I'm an evil Pokémon."
I followed her through a weird crampy tunnel that was somehow wide enough to accommodate the fully-grown Haxorus dragoness, and was more than big enough for me. I padded along as the tunnel went in a big windey circle and corkscrewed downward. I felt the rivets in the stone, and I realized they'd come from the Haxorus herself. She carved this tunnel with her own blades, I just knew it.
The tunnel wasn't as long as I expected, and when we got to the bottom, we dropped into this really warm, cozy little chamber that had a soft mossy floor. The light crystals were soft blue and yellow, very easy on the eyes. Pondwater dripped down through the cave walls and pooled into a little river stream that ran around the outside of the room. And there were weird objects strewn around the floor, from little wooden cubes, to chiseled branches, to the discarded bones of prey. The whole chamber smelled like must, blood, salt, and faintly like burned-out ashes. But not in a bad way! Weirdly, all the unpleasant scents combined together into something almost relaxing and homely. It smelled like… the very essence of a dragon's heart.
I gasped when I saw the center of the room. There, curled into a little ball, were three infant Axew hatchlings.
"Wow, how old are they?" I beamed.
"A little less than two seasons," she said. "Their father left as soon as their eggs were laid. Didn't want to raise hatchlings. He was the provider, and he left me all alone to fend for myself. It's like I said: some Pokémon are only pretending to be your friend, and they're only using you to feel better about themselves. Something I learned the hard way. I'm no hunter, I can't chase down prey to save my life. And I can't show my face in public. Can't submit requests to the job boards because they'd just arrest me. I had to resort to stealing. All those treasures you see in the other room? I don't even know what most of those things are supposed to do. I just sell them on the black market to provide for my hatchlings."
I crept close to them, careful not to get too close. I just wanted to see if they were healthy. They sure looked healthy to me… three tiny little dragons ready to grow great and strong and change the world someday.
"They aren't hungry, are they?" I said, feeling my heart moved. "All that stuff you got… that's enough to keep them fed for a long time, isn't it?"
"Not as long as you'd think," she grumbled. "Three ravenous little hatchlings is a lot of mouths to feed, not to mention my own. I can't afford to rest. At this rate, my reserves are going to dry up in about… six months. And that's if we're frugal."
I looked at her. "What's your name?" I wondered. "Or… what can I call you by?"
"I don't know. Call me whatever you want, I don't care," she huffed, curling her long snakey body around the hatchlings. "My father used to call be by one name, and my mate used to call me by something else, but I don't ever want to hear those names again. Right now I'm just… 'Mother.'"
"And the dragonets? What are their names?" I wondered.
"I don't know. They can hardly speak, I haven't given them names yet," she muttered. "What, you got any suggestions?"
I smiled brightly. "You can call them Dia, Pala, and Gia. After the creation dragons! And for you… How about Arcia! Mother Arcia!" I said. "You know, after Arceus! Since those are the creation dragons, and you're their parent!"
"I can't imagine a more pretentious name," she groaned, "to think of myself as the god of the universe."
"Buuuut you like it, don't you?" I pressed, smiling deviously.
She sighed. Actually more like snorted. She refused to say anything, but the sound of the snort-sigh answered my question.
"Hm. Well!" I said to her proudly. "Good Mother Arcia, if that's your only crime, to steal stuff for the sake of your children, then no, you're not a bad Pokémon. Not at all. You're a very good Pokémon. I know that everyone else might hate you for it, but I can tell that you're doing your best!"
"…Yeah, kid, I'm glad you see things like that," she told me. "More openminded than most Pokémon I've met. But when you get on the other end of things, it's not so simple."
"What do you mean?" I said innocently, wanting to cuddle next to the children so she would cuddle me too.
"If you're a thief, you know what it's like," she told me. "Maybe you broke into my den to rob me. Maybe you had a good cause, say, feeding your family. But I still would have to hurt you and kick you out. Need to defend my own family. In fact, I'm still not entirely convinced that you're not up to something and trying to get on my good side so you can trick me. Nothing personal. Just the way things are. Sometimes there's no right answer for everyone. At the end of the day, you stick up for yourself, or you starve."
"And yet, you're still not like other dragons I know," I told her confidently. "The kind who would have eaten me or fed me to the hatchlings instead. That's one way to keep their mouths fed, and you didn't do that. That's how I know you're one of the good dragons."
"Alright, I'll give you that much," snorted the dragoness at me. "So, dare I ask… what's your story, kid? What's the real reason you're here? Gonna turn me in to the authorities? Got your buddies waiting outside to nab me and clear out my den? Is this the last night I get to spend with my children? If you've got any sort of heart in you, I'd prefer to know."
This was TOO good.
I was getting giddy inside. I knew I brought along Gemstone for something! I really just brought her along for good company, and for good luck. But now I was starting to understand why fate REALLY needed me to bring her along. See, told you it's always nice to have a dragon at your side!
I pounced up and wiggled my tail. "Actually… no, that's not why I'm here," I said. "Good guess, though. I'll admit, this WASmy assignment, to do exactly that. But I have something else in mind, if you're willing to listen. Something that I think would benefit me, you, and your hatchlings."
I told her to meet me up at the shore of the pond at the evening of the next day. Then I jumped back into the water, and Adamant materialized in front of me and helped drag me up to the surface, where the rest of my team waited. It was getting late, almost late enough that we'd need to ask Zona to protect us.
"Tallie, I need you to fly back to the base for something," I ordered her, sounding all official and bossy.
"Oh, why's that? Forget something?" Tallie sneered at me, flaring her wings. "Has our fearless leader come unprepared? Surprise, surprise."
"Actually, no. I've come VERY prepared, it turns out," I said, giving Gemstone a mysterious little look. "Take Gemstone back with you. Gemstone… I've changed my mind. I think I DO want Raptor's help after all. Will you get him for me, pweeeeease?"
On the third day of the assignment, instead of going out to steal stuff like she usually did, Arcia came up to the surface and I introduced her to my friends. I tried to make her feel as comfortable as possible, since making a dragon feel threatened for no good reason is a recipe for getting your head bitten off!
"So this is Zona," I said, introducing her to the Vulpix. "He may not look like much, but he's the BEST at fighting the Watchers, ever! He can protect us when we travel at night. Zona, this is Arcia, the dragoness thief."
"Pleasure to meet you," Zona said with a kind smile.
"Kitty's right, you really don't look like much," Arcia said with distaste.
Zona only chuckled a little. "I get that a lot, to be honest," he said. "Just means you'll be surprised to see what I can do."
"And this is Adamant," I said, turning to the still-dripping-wet Vaporeon who only just reluctantly slithered his way out from the pond. "He's here for a very specific reason that I'm going to show you soon."
"Hey! Nice lake!" he said bashfully, as though he were ashamed that was the first thing on his mind. He looked longingly back at the water.
"Aww, c'mon, fish-boy. You can go swimming again soon. I just need one thing out of you," I said, nudging his slimy, fishy hide.
"Hey… Zona," Adamant said, as though suddenly having an idea. "I was wondering, no real reason, just curious is all, but do Watchers stay out of the water, too? Just like they stay out of shelters? Do you know?"
"I… don't know that, I'm afraid," Zona said. "Just because I can repel them doesn't mean I'm an expert on their behavior. I'm sure we could ask someone – "
"…Yes, Watchers stay out of water," Arcia said, peering over at the lake. "Otherwise I wouldn't be alive after all the close calls I've had. But only if you stay fully submerged. That means once you go under, better not come up for air until morning. Some of them keep their eyes on you, and they swarm you soon as you poke up your snout."
Adamant… when he heard her say that, he got this look on his face like he'd just witnessed Arceus create the whole world. His black beady eyes went so wide, his tail curled to the side… he looked like a sweet little tadpole shivering in wonderment.
Awwwww. I think that was the moment he realized he could just outright live underwater. Like, forever. I don't blame him. That was the same face I made when I first realized I could get dragons to be my friends. (Hey, I hear that when a Vaporeon first realizes that, their instincts drive them to go into the ocean and stay there for like ten years before ever coming up for air!)
But sadly for him, it wasn't time for Adamant to go wallowing in fishy heaven. He was on a team and he had a job to do.
"And finally, this is Gemstone," I said, swinging my tail in her direction. "Shiny Nidorina. Don't call her a boy! She's not a boy! She'll scratch your face off! She's my partner on this mission, she helped me come up with this plan."
The Haxorus regarded the Nidorina, and the two shared a silent exchange of greetings, nothing but a small nod of the head.
And that was all of us, at the moment. I had told Tallie to meet us along the way later, and Raptor was lurking around in the shadows somewhere and keeping an eye on us, but he couldn't come out yet. We couldn't let our dragoness thief know he was there. That was important.
"So… bunch of pipsqueaks," said Arcia, looking down at all of us. "Care to explain your plan to me? And I'll just have to warn you that if this all some kind of setup for an ambush to lock me away, I will fight you tooth and nail, because I'm not abandoning my children."
I shook my head vigorously. "Nope! Good Mother Arcia, we're actually going to help you feed your children!" I joyously shouted.
The dragoness mother looked surprised for a moment, but she just gleamed her big red blades at me and said, "And if you expect me to believe this, then what's in it for you?"
"Oh, you'll see!" I sang, then scampered ahead, leading the team forth. "Oh, by the way. Both you foxes. You get next to her like you're keeping her captive. Gemstone, get that rope we brought and tie her hands together, and lead her forward. Okay? Don't worry, Arcia. It's only play-pretending. There's a reason for this, I promise."
"Whatever you say," groaned the unimpressed dragoness thief.
And we started our long walk! It would take a few hours, since the place we were headed to was rather far away, but thankfully Arcia had trained her children to sleep during this time of day so that she could go out thieving.
But only about fifteen minutes down the road, just as I could start to sense the dragoness's simmering rage for not explaining anything to her… predictably, Tallie showed up. Landed in a tree branch and almost broke it, then fluttered over to a different one.
Arcia tensed up and tilted her head, ready to make some minced chicken out of Tallie with her head-blades if she dared to swoop in. Still, I saw that fear and shock in the Dragoness's eye. She realized how powerful Tallie was just by looking at her, and I think she knew she couldn't have beaten us while being so outnumbered.
"Oh, there you are," Tallie grumbled, giving us a real nice phoenix-glare. "You realize you gave me the wrong directions, Kittycat? Had to waste my time tracking you down."
"Oh! Ooopsie!" I said cutely.
"No matter. I see you've got our thief under control," Tallie said, surprised. "And two days ahead of schedule, too. Gotta hand it to you, that was some nice clean planning on your part."
"Oh, you have NO idea!" I laughed.
"Ah, well, you do realize you're going the wrong way, right?" Tallie said oddly. "The prison house is to the northeast. This is west. Where's your sense of direction today, you guys?"
"Nope! We're going this way!" I shouted. "I know which way I'm going!"
"Uh, okay, seems like you didn't tell me about THIS part of your plan," Tallie said suspiciously. "Mind explaining why you have your prisoner captive, but you aren't taking them in?"
I was silent. Gemstone was silent. The two foxy boys were silent. I grinned evilly at her.
Tallie gave me an evil glint of her own. "Hey, you. Haxorus," Tallie called. "Care to tell me what they're doing to you? And tell the truth, because trust me, I could knock them all out and take you in myself if I wanted." Her evil glint turned into a fierce, angry glare.
"They say they're helping me," said Arcia, shrugging to her. "Don't know much more than that. Say they're going to help me feed my kids"
"AWK!" shouted Tallie, almost falling off the branch. "HELPING her?! Excuse me? This is not authorized! You can't TEAM UP with an outlaw like this! Do you KNOW how many rules this breaks?!"
"Aww, now you're turning into Otto!" I cruelly teased her, disregarding her accusations. "Think maybe you're spending too much time around him?"
"HISS! Regardless of RULES, Do you KNOW how stupid this is of you?" she screamed in a higher-pitched caw. "You can't just TRUST a random outlaw! We're not that kind of team! You have no experience! They'll run circles around you! And besides, We don't run a CHARITY! Kittycat, I GAVE you this mission because the team NEEDED the money! I'M PAYING YOU FOR THIS! So turn your silly little tail around and TAKE HER IN!"
"Nah, I'm the boss of you today, and I think you should just shut up. Or go away," I said flippantly. "I'm doing what I want."
"Doesn't work like that, kid," Tallie said, flaring her wings. "My role as first officer overrides your role as team lead. And since you have NO experience in consorting with high-risk enemy figures, you're making an ill-advised choice that puts the team, and the Division, in danger, and I cannot allow this to happen –"
I gave a little swish of my tail, which was a signal we'd agreed upon.
And then, in one of the most beautiful moments I've EVER seen in my LIFE, Adamant totally BLASTED Tallie with the biggest, juiciest pillar of water you can imagine. SPLAT! Straight in the chest, with her wings still all open and everything! And she made this great screeching noise, too! Like "SQUAKREEEIIIEE!" You really had to have seen it for yourself. Red and white feathers burst into the air and drifted down like confetti, and Tallie twisted and tumbled in midair, just barely getting her balance and landing on the ground.
She scowled at us for a moment, but we couldn't take the scowl seriously because she was SO SOPPING WET and her feathers were crooked and everything! SHE LOOKED SO STUPID AND IT WAS SO GREAT! I keeled over laughing, and so did Adamant and Gemstone! Gemstone even forgot she was supposed to be holding the ropes and dropped them. That was another really awesome moment, getting to hear Gemstone actually LAUGH for the first time. Like, the hopeless and involuntary kind of giggling. So sweet and clear and sparkly. Like a gemstone!
Tallie, predictably, flew away. Arcia, predictably, looked confused.
"Did you just try to murder your ringleader?" Arcia asked, looking down at Adamant, who was still rolling in the mud in all his slimy, fishy mirth.
"Nah, don't worry about her, she's going to be fiiine," I promised. "She's basically a level-hundred, it takes more than that to put a dent in her. Nah, we just got her a little annoyed, is all."
Gemstone was still giggle, giggle, giggling her heart out, scratching at the dirt in hopeless attempts to compose herself. Just seeing that made bringing her along all worth it. "Annoyed…? You call that… just a little annoyed? Did you SEE her face? Sh-she's going to put you on cleaning duty for YEARS! That was so perfect…"
"You," the Arcia finally said, staring at the branch where Tallie perched just a moment ago. "You really aren't taking me to get arrested, are you? You're defying your own boss? And even if that little stunt was all scripted… if that Talonflame was really level one-hundred, she could have wiped the floor with all of us. She could have just arrested me herself. You… you really do have something else in mind, don't you, Kitty?"
There it was, a dragon's trust. Trust cannot simply be given. It must be earned. It must be proven by a show of faith. A show of faith like blasting your first officer clean out of a tree with a majestic hydro-pump. (IT STILL MAKES ME LAUGH! IT LOOKED JUST AS AMAZING AS IT DID IN MY HEAD! GAHAHAHA! You should see how wary Tallie is of Adamant now… she tries to hide it, but if you watch closely, she always stays on the other end of the room from him, and looks at him more than anyone else. That's the look of a changed bird!)
"Oh yes, I have many things in mind, great dragoness!" I laughed. "And all I need for you to do… is help me with something. One little thing, and I might just be able to change your life. How's that sound?"
Okay, so now imagine for a moment that you're a Druddigon, and you're kind of the most awful creature on the face of the earth. You come home from a long tiresome day of eating babies or whatever, and you settle into your shoddy, terribly-placed den at the corner of Nincadia in the basement of an abandoned hut.
You're looking forward to a nice, cozy night of sleeping in your own filth and gloating about how evil you are.
Well, that's exactly what our little outlaw friend was doing! Probably just dozing off. Not realizing that today was going to be the unluckiest day of his life! Not realizing that some infernal little kittycat just had to come in and ruin everything!
Oh yeah, did I mention? I also had Tallie scout out the location of this bozo the other day, too. Told her that if I had enough time, maybe I did want to do both of them! So I at least wanted to know where the Druddigon's hideout was. Turns out if was much much easier to find than Arcia! I guess some murderers just have such low standards… Well, Tallie never even suspected what I was really up to, so there's that, at least.
So, this was the fourth day of the mission. The walk to Nincadia was longer than I wanted. And we showed up in the middle of the night: Arcia, me, Zona, and Gemstone. (Adamant agreed to head back and spend the night at Arcia's lake and watch over the dragonets for her, so that was nice. Although I do hope he actually checked on the dragonets once or twice instead of just making out with the water all night…) Zona kept us safe under his light-bubble, which we know he couldn't keep up forever, but it did help us forge a way through the Watcher swarm after like midnight which is when our target dragon would probably have least suspected an ambush.
So yeah, our resident murderer was woken up to the sound of a CRASH-BANG-BOOM of the entire house collapsing around him. And that was all Arcia's doing! What a ferocious she-dragon! Burst through the wall, which was made with some kind of weird insect fiber, and it all crumbled down.
I told Arcia about the outlaw and the bounty on its head. I told Arcia its bounty was higher than hers was because he was a more vicious criminal. I told her that if we ever hoped to take it down, we'd need a fellow dragon to give us support. And then we could talk about splitting the profits. And she could afford a lot of food for her dragonets!
Well. I had some idea of how fearsome a mother can be when they are fighting for their children. But what I saw Arcia do that night… it was the WRATH OF A GOD incarnate. The true power and glory of a dragon, come to life. The same power and glory in EVERY dragon, which they only let out to those they deem worthy of it.
See.. when Arcia stormed into the hut and went down the stairs into the ditch-basement where the Druddigon kept his heart of pure evil, she saw something as she was going down the stairs.
There were a few skulls on the ground. Obviously skulls of his late victims. But Arcia noticed one in particular.
She picked it up, she looked at it for a moment, turned it around in her hand.
I realized at the same moment she did. This was an Axew skull. A baby Axew skull. It wasn't her baby, but that didn't matter in the moment. It hit her hard deep in her dragon's heart. It was blasphemy against her pride.
In that moment, Arcia TRANSFORMED. It was like she became the very DRAGON-TYPE ARCEUS! She roared her fury and dashed down the stairs, with the rest of us struggling to keep up! She stormed that den, and she found the evil dragon just laying there on the ground.
"YOU MONSTER!" She cried, at the sleeping dragon, throwing the Axew skull at him.
"Oh, I'm not a monster! I'm just an innocent guy doing what's necessary to stay alive!" he said all smarmy and evil-like. "Speaking of which, I feel pretty hungry at the moment, and you look delicious."
Now this next part, I didn't expect. Because sometimes, dragons are just unpredictable like that. Just like I never would have predicted that I would have gotten to see Dash get crunched in half in a dragon's mouth, I never would have expected to see Arcia do what she did that night.
She went wild. She went feral. Or as I like to sometimes call it… she went full origin-forme.
Slash! Slash! The heroic Haxorus attacked head-on with all that divine power of Arceus in her blades. She roared and snarled and got into an epic struggle with the pathetic loser Druddigon. And I was JUST STARTING TO GASP IN WONDERMENT AT HOW EPIC IT WAS and then just ended. All the movement stopped. Something slumped to the floor.
Arcia… sliced his heart out.
Okay, well, that's not what actually happened, but it SOUNDS epic, so that's what I'm going to put into the story, and that's what you can imagine right now. Arcia the ferocious the protective mother, abandoned by her mate, released all her primal, divine fury and sliced out the despicable Druddigon's heart with her own blades! That's what the records will say about that moment!
When it was done, she just stood gasping and panting, realizing that she'd just slain a rival dragon. Looked at her own claws, as though not realizing that she ever had that power to stand up to another dragon like this.
She was proud of herself. And so was I. I even told her the previous day – "Look, we're going to try to take the outlaw alive. But if you've gotta slay them, then slay them, if that's what it comes to. The job pays the same either way." And guess what! She did.
But here's the funny part. While she was busy raiding the filthy den, Zona turned back to get someone else who'd tagged along in the shadows. That being Raptor, Gemstone's father. I made sure Arcia never knew that Raptor was there. That's because I needed Arcia to start the fight on her own, so she could learn to have confidence in herself. I wanted her to see for herself that she had the power to be a DRAGON and FIGHT for her family and STAND UP to bad guys. And if she wanted, she could even make a CAREER out of outlaw hunting, and it would pay so, so, so much more than ripping off random items from the local traders. And she didn't have to be a criminal anymore. She had OPTIONS. She didn't have to live in the shadow of her stupid coward of a mate. She could truly stand on her own!
That was my plan. Show Arcia that she could stand up and be a good guy if she wanted! But if the fight started to go wrong? Then Raptor was supposed to jump in and help her fight, and the plan would hopefully go in a little bit of a… different direction, so to say. An alternate plan if Arcia couldn't do it on her own, where she'd be introduced to Raptor by him saving her life, demonstrating how strong and skilled he is (because remember, he's from Team Remorse), and having the two of them become friends. And maybe he could teach her all about self-defense and prey hunting and all the dragony things that he could teach her to help her be a better mother and, of course, NOT be a criminal.
But uh… I never expected that both plans would happen at once.
Arcia tensed up and froze the moment she looked up the stairs to see the fearsome Gabite staring down at her, her claws and her face and her blades covered in dragon's blood.
"Star?!" She gasped, stepping back and covering her mouth in shock. "Is that you?"
"Star?" the Gabite echoed. "Who's Star?"
But just as soon as he replied, she let her guard down. "Oh, nevermind. You're not evolved… I was about to slay you too. Who are you? Are you with the Kitty and friends?"
"My name's Raptor," said Gemstone's dad, coming down the stairs. "The Kitty asked me to come. Said you might have needed help with this mission."
I saw Gemstone and Raptor exchange a really interesting glance with one another. I saw Gemstone exchange a really interesting glance with me. I tried to send an interesting one back.
"Hurk. Well. You're a bit late," Arcia sneered, stepping over the slumped form of the Druddigon beneath her feet. "Help me carry the body, maybe, so I can get paid for this."
Aaaaaaaaaaaaand that's the story of how Gemstone got a new mother and three new siblings!
Well alright, they're not that far yet. But it's kind of obvious they're going that way. Arcia really likes Gabite and Garchomp a lot, it turns out. And Raptor has taken a real interest in visiting her den every once in a while to help with taking care of her hatchlings, teach them all dragony things. And there've been rumors of Raptor wanting to retire from Team Remorse, but he denies them all, says he's only helping out a long-term client.
But I know better. Gemstone visits her den a lot nowadays too, wants to spend time with her dad. And she told me about the things they talk about. Raptor says that he wants to teach the dragonets how to battle when they get older. They're even talking about which town they want to send them for going to school. Yeaah, you don't just casually talk about those kinds of things and say it's just business! (Or I guess, unless you're DUMB and you can't see what's actually happening right in front of your face…)
Anyway, at least they're making progress. Last I heard, Arcia can catch Rattata and Pidgey and even some wild canines now. The feral kinds, though, not… you know. Either way, between that and the steady income she has from doing high-profile outlaw-hunting missions once or twice a year, and the extra Poké that mysteriously appears in her den sometimes (and I imagine is mysteriously disappearing from Team Remorse's account), the kids aren't going to go hungry anytime soon.
In all, the mission was a success! My personal rank went waaay up (I was actually credited with completing BOTH missions because Arcia willfully gave up some of her more expensive stolen goods, which the mission asked for)! I made a new dragon friend, helped three little creation gods to grow proud and strong, and probably prevented a bunch of children from getting eaten, too! (And that's for you, Dash. Always for you.)
Now who would have ever suspected a cute wittle kitten could have accomplished all that, huh? Told you. NOBODY suspects me!
Oh yeah, speaking of being a wittle kitten…
The moment I got home from that mission, I decided that I had earned my new name fair and square.
So I embraced it. Took that feral-shard and evolved into a Delcatty. Now I'm not just cute, I'm SUPER CUTE. ALL FEAR THE SUPER CUTENESS OF THE DRAGONSLAYER. FEAR ME OR YOU WILL BE SORRY!
And having done that, I went to the registrar and changed my name. And that was that.
And I took the proof of my name change straight up to Tallie, who was once again in the planning room working tirelessly on her next batch of slave labor for the team. I came in, jumped up on the table in front of her and spat it out right on top of whatever document she was reading.
"Read it and WEEP, mighty First Officer!" I teased, in my NEWER, CUTER voice, wiggling my NEWER, CUTER tail!
Tallie snorted at me, and clawed at the receipt to unroll it. "Alright, alright. Fine. You win," she sighed, rolling her eyes. "Congratulations, you've proven me wrong. So fine, you've earned the right to hear me say it. ALL HAIL DRA- "
She stopped. She looked down at the scroll, she reread it once or twice, and nudged the end of the paper that kept rolling itself back up, as though that would change what it said.
"AWK! Wh- Wha…" she mumbled out.
"SHHHHHHHH!" I said, putting a paw cutely up against my mouth like humans supposedly do, and trying not to laugh. "Dragonbane. It's Dragonbane, okay?"
"F-fine. All hail Dragonbane," she mumbled awkwardly. "Now get out of here so I can figure out tomorrow's missions, you silly cat. By all of Arceus. The things I put up with on this team…"
"But you wouldn't trade it for the world, am I right?" I teased innocently.
Tallie showed a brief glimmer of shame and vulnerability in her eye. And though she's never going to admit to it if anyone asks, she said: "No, not for anything in the world. This is the best job I've ever had. I've tried a hundred different things before. Different teams, different roles and different skills. I was good at them all. But this… being the leader of this team is the first time I've ever actually felt like… this is my real calling. Thank you for being a part of it. Now PLEASE get the heck out of here, before I pick you up and carry you out myself."
So a bit later after that, I was hanging out in Gemstone's room and we were gossiping about Raptor and Arcia like normal. She said to me, "So you changed your name finally? I can't hold Rufus the Doofus over your head anymore? Pity."
"Yep! Rufus is totally dead!" I squeaked, and showed her the name-change receipt too. "But see… in all my years, I've realized something. I actually like having a secret name! It's actually really cool to have a fake name that EVERYBODY knows, and a real name that you only show to the Pokémon you trust the most."
When Gemstone unrolled the paper and read what was on it, she had one of those huge, bright smiles on her face for a moment. Then she remembered to pretend to want to puke. But then she didn't have the energy to do that, so she just settled for a soft little smile of understanding.
"So yeah. From now on, to the wide world, I'm DRAGONBANE, the fearsome slayer, to strike absolute fear into every evil dragon who's ever even THOUGHT of eating civil Pokémon. They will speak my name in hushed whispers, they will tremble as they gossip about my gruesomely heroic deeds, and they will pray to Arceus and all the creation dragons that I will never set my targets upon them… and Arceus will ignore their prayer because they don't deserve his mercy!"
I smiled back at her.
"Only my closest friends will know what I'm really like. They'll know that I admire dragons much more than I've ever hated them. That all I really want is to earn their trust and support. To be with them. To be like them. To have special dragon friends to accompany me on my adventures. That all I really want to do is to be honored by them, and to honor them, as the greatest, most awesome creatures who have ever walked the earth and flown the skies. Only the friends of mine who know about that side of me… they will know who I really am."
Gemstone looked down at the paper one more time.
Then she looked back up at me.
"…Dragonheart," she said.
I grinned. She grinned.
She burst out laughing. That sweet, crystal-clear, crazy adorable giggle that only she can make.
"That's the cheesiest name I've ever heard!" she laughed. "That's… that's worse than Rufus!"
I swiveled my tail knowingly, and I said, "But you wouldn't change it for the world… would you?"
She managed to stop herself from hyperventilating from laughter. She composed herself, then she said… "No. I wouldn't change it for the world. Never change, Dragonheart. Never change."