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"Together in the Dark"
Otto was still out cold when the stars filled the clear night sky, and when the sinister yellow eyes of the Watchers appeared among them. He rested upon a dried puddle of his own blood in the same place he had passed out. Though his body was whole and perfect, stronger and healthier than ever before in his life, his mind needed time to adjust to the added length of his wings and bulk of his muscles, and his imagination kept him occupied with amusing dreams of chasing tiny rodents across the Wanderer's Meadow.
He slept soundly, unaware that the spirits of the night sky descended upon him, drifting closer by the minute.
"Silly bird," said a voice from nearby, a figure cloaked in darkness. "What do you think you're doing, spending the night out here? C'mon now, can't have that…"
The shadowy figure gently scooped up the sleeping bird. It took a moment to admire him. What a marvel it was, the thief thought, to see a Pokémon so immaculately healthy, in the way it only could be just after an evolution. Every scar was gone, every sickness cured, every minor injury or defect erased. Every feather was newborn and aligned with perfect symmetry. By a magic as old as Arceus himself, the bird's DNA had been altered, and its body had been rebuilt from scratch with the new genetic structure. It was a complete rebirth, one that Pokémon could only know but once or twice in their whole lifetimes.
The thief balanced the bird upon its back, thanking Arceus that birds were such lightweight creatures, and crept off down the alleyway beneath the unblinking gaze of the Watchers. It slipped into the back door of a warehouse, the very door which it had misremembered earlier that day, and locked it behind.
It was a great big warehouse, stocked with dozens of tall shelves filled with iron beams. There was a vacant space near the center of the room where some terraforming equipment was parked. Some glowing blue rocks in the ceiling gave just enough light to let her see a few claws in front of her face.
The thief crept into a cozy space between two of the shelves and set the peaceful Pidgeotto down onto its side, then unloaded its burdens – a bag of stolen groceries, seeds and berries from the market, and another bag of enchanted items.
Finally, with a deep sigh, the Furret removed her cape, folding it neatly and setting it next to her hard-earned spoils. She curled around them, pouring the magical bag's contents onto the floor, eager to take account of the day's accomplishments.
She pawed at a pearl necklace. The pearls were fake, probably just polished rocks, but it had a deep enchantment upon it. She didn't understand what the enchantment did – she didn't feel anything different when she touched it or wound it around her front leg – she just knew it was there because her special glasses told her. They made things glow different colors when they were enchanted, and she could see the glow even through walls. This one glowed bright orange, one of the stronger colors. She decided she would wear it for a walk in the meadow for a day to see if it made her feel any different – not in town, because she didn't want anyone to recognize the jewelry as missing.
The Furret turned her attention to another item, a kind of golden bracelet with slots in it. The item had a very weak aura of magic – a dull brown glow. It looked like there were supposed to be gemstones set into the slots, she hadn't found any that would fit. Slipping on her appraisal specs, she noted that the slots had a higher magical resonance than the rest of the band, and wondered if the bracelet was designed to channel or magnify the power of whatever was attached to it. Slipping it onto her forepaw, she found that the brace automatically tightened itself snugly around her arm. Now that was interesting.
So many strange, wonderful new discoveries lay before her, gems and orbs she'd never seen before, things which would surely make a better thief out of her once she would learn how they worked…
But she found herself distracted, and kept glancing to the sleeping Pidgeotto. It had taken her proudest reward of the day – the feral shard she'd pilfered from the Steel Mansion basement – but she did not find it within her heart to hold resentment for the little guy. She couldn't just let the Watchers eat him after she'd given up the feral-shard for him. What a waste that would be.
"Poor thing," she muttered quietly. "I'm sorry… It's not your fault…"
She touched the "detect band" which still strangled her hind leg, the enchanted item which had allowed her to sense the bird's attack at the last moment just before it would have connected. Along with the cape, the detect band was one of her favorite items – it had protected her from capture too many times to count, especially from her sworn rivals, the Kecleon brothers. They were fast, and they could turn invisible, and they were very powerful when they got angry! But as long as she listened to the impulse from the band, she would always know which way to dodge in the heat of the moment.
But that wasn't her favorite item of all – those were the appraisal specs. There was a secret reason she never got caught, and she wondered how long it would take before the Kecleon traders would realize what mistake they were making in trying to capture her. It surprised her that they hadn't figured it out yet.
The Furret quietly played with her new toys, separating them into a pile which showed promise and a pile which might as well get recycled or given away. She was nearly through when she heard a batting of feathers and a scraping of talons, and she curled closely around her stolen belongings and fumbled for the penumbra cape, haphazardly tossing it on her back just in time.
The Pidgeotto unsuccessfully attempted to climb to its feet, instead only flailing from side to side. It flipped its body in the thief's direction and stared at her. There was an angry green glint in the bird's eyes, and the Furret felt a fearful shiver, wondering for a moment if the bird was somehow seeing past the cape's shroud.
"Oh, hello! Good morning!" the Furret tried saying. "Kind of. It's… it's not morning, really. It's… I rescued you from the Watchers, you know! It's still dark out. Probably midnight by now!"
"You are the thief," the Pidgeotto said plainly.
The Furret felt bashful. It was exciting, having someone call her the thief. "That's me," she said with a wide grin. "The Shadow Bandit of Iron Town! Wow, I've always… wanted to say that."
The bird flopped around, twisting its legs and wings, but never taking its eyes off the Furret. "Where how. Why can't. Wings. I'm not… work, cawwww! There is no sense of. Feeling. Awwwl."
"Whoa there, little guy! You've got to calm down!" the Furret urged. "You probably have evolution sickness! It'll go away by tomorrow."
The bird stopped flailing around, flopping onto its side and staring hard at the thief.
"Evolution… sickness…?" it said, moving its beak carefully to enunciate each word.
"Yeah, silly! You're a Pidgeotto now, didn't you notice?" the Furret laughed. "I remember back when I evolved, I was numb from the neck down all afternoon and I was bumping into things all week! It feels like an out-of-body experience, but you get used to it!"
The Pidgeotto's eyes widened. The Furret expected many things – gratitude, elation, wonder and awe – but she did not expect the bird to burst into a fit of panic, trying ever-unsuccessfully to climb to its own feet. The poor bird rambled as it tossed itself around. "No, I was not supposed to. Evolve yet. There are training. Regimens. Special. Therapy. Controlled. Environment. Now I cannot. I will not. Learn. Relearn. Of flying. Awwk! New body. Wingspan. Velocity. Bank pitch. Eyesight. Heartrate. Everything. It will all be. Different."
"Hey, hey! Easy, easy!" said the Furret scurrying forward. "It's okay, I promise! It's going to be okay. Evolving is supposed to make you happy, you know! Not… like this."
The flailing bird froze stiff as it watched the cloud of darkness sweep in its direction. It braced itself for an attack, but instead felt a gentle pair of paws lift it off the ground and set it upon its new, strong talons.
"…Thank you," the bird said, blinking in surprise. "But… You… do not understand. I am trained. Strictly trained. In the avian arts. We are not supposed to evolve without proper… preparation. My training does not apply to my new body. I will lose my skills."
The Furret gave him a pat on the head, then scurried away to curl around her treasures again. "Nah! I don't think so. If Pokémon lost all their skills when they evolved, I don't think Pokémon would have survived for so long, do you? You'll just have to adjust. And use a lil' intuition."
"Intuition…" Otto muttered, spreading his wings carefully, peering at the new feather patterns.
"There aren't always instructions for everything y'know, sometimes you've just got to try stuff… and see what happens." She rolled some magical wonder-orbs around in her paws, listening to them speak their soulless messages into her mind. She always looked for the wonder-orbs that didn't explain how they were meant to be used. They were always the most powerful, having been cast before the Master knew that orbs existed and began to heavily regulate the imbuers beneath his reign. "That's how I got to be such a good thief, too," she added.
Otto eyed the thief suspiciously, wondering about the secrets hidden beneath the dark cloud of fog which sat just beyond his reach.
He tried to digest the odd turn of events the day had taken. He badly wanted to panic – the urge to panic seemed much stronger now that he had to deal with the biological reactions of a much larger body – but instead he tried to do as he always did, and stop to think before he would act.
I do not lose control, Otto told himself. As a Pidgey I never lost control, and neither will I now. I need to think about this.
I am trapped in a dark room with the outlaw. What are my options?
Though his mind was fuzzy, and his muscles were very sore, and every sinew pulsed with tingles and stings, he found that his thoughts were the same way he'd left them.
If I attack… it would be a risk. I am not yet in full control of this larger form, and I do not know what the thief is truly capable of. It has already evaded my first attack. I do not want to be trapped in this building all night with an entity who could defeat me if it so decided. But perhaps there is something productive that could be learned here…
Could I learn what Eva failed to learn?
"Why are you a thief?" he asked, forcing curiosity into his warbled new voice.
"Hmm? What do you mean?" the thief said.
"What is your motive to steal?" Otto tried. "Why have you chosen to be a thief?"
"Hnnn! Because it's fun," she said. "And because I'm good at it."
"…Odd," said Otto, piecing the new information into the puzzle. "Your motive is not for wealth…?"
"…Nah, I'm already rich! Life isn't about what you have, it's about what you do," she said, tossing another amulet onto one of the piles behind the shroud. "I only steal things that help me be a better thief. Or things that I can sell away to buy what I need. You'd be surprised at what you can do when you've got the right tools. Of course, I never buy anything from the Kecleons, they're my rivals!"
"What tools do you have?" Otto tried asking.
The Furret laughed. "Not saying! The great Shadow Bandit never reveals her secrets!"
"You are not skilled at keeping secrets," Otto noted. "For instance, you just revealed to me that you are a female."
"Oh… oh? Did I? So I did," she said, shrugging. "Ah, well. I'm so clumsy sometimes. There's a lot I'm still learning about staying secret. But you still don't know what kind of Pokémon I am, do you?"
"I suspect you are a rodent," he said. "The shadow cape you wear does not hide your smell."
And the feral bird inside of me wants to eat you, Otto added quietly.
"Ah-ha! I guess you aren't good at keeping secrets, either," the thief said triumphantly. "Now I know you're working for Kecleon. He's the only one who knows that this is a cape! So here's a bit of advice, from one trainee to another: you should never tell your opponent how much you know, alright? It's just like how I thought you may have been someone sent by Kecleon to capture me, but I was trying to play dumb and not say what I was thinking. But now, I know that you know I'm a rodent, and that I'm a girl, and that I'm wearing a cape, I can figure out how to trick you—"
There was a very loud explosion, rattling the objects on the warehouse shelves.
Otto tensed and folded his wings, and the thief dropped the glass ball she was busy appraising. There was a residual reverberating sound that persisted long after it should have, like a distant, never-ending rumble of thunder.
"What—" Otto started.
"There's something here that's not supposed to be here," the thief gasped. "Quick. Hide."
It got louder. There were creaking, metallic clanks mixed with the sound of shattering and tumbling. The sound came through the nearby wall, the wall which separated this warehouse from the next. Otto deduced that a shelf had collapsed, and was spilling all of its contents onto the floor in the next warehouse, perhaps causing a chain reaction which destroyed the other shelves within close proximity.
After several minutes, the sound of the disaster subsided, but there was still something amiss. There were steady vibrations, the sounds of a giant's footsteps.
The thief scooped up all of her valuables into the bags and bolted into the shadows. Otto remained pinned in place, not knowing how to react to his sense of panic with his new legs that wouldn't seem to walk and his new wings which didn't know how to fly.
Thrum, thrum, thrum. The giant trudged, and the steel shelves teetered and trembled. Otto wondered if these shelves would also collapse, pinning him beneath a deadly avalanche of heavy construction materials.
A large claw reached out of the solid wall.
Otto could only watch in wonder as a large, thorned beast emerged through the wall using some sort of intangibility spell.
Before the beast had revealed itself fully, a pelt of fur encircled the Pidgeotto and swept him from his feet.
"Ah, guess I have to do everything for you," the thief said, carrying him off. "Bad time to have evolution sickness. You must have waited a very long time to evolve."
The thief carried him into the darkest corner of the warehouse, set him down, then flipped up the penumbra cape so that it would cover the both of them. Otto saw the thief's true form for the first time, and saw that the Furret's arms and legs were adorned with magical objects. Upon her face rested a pair of spectacles. The cape was lazily draped across her neck, and Otto's as well, and Otto deduced that anyone else looking at them from a farther distance away would only see the black cloud.
She gave him a friendly glance. "Hey… don't tell anyone, alright?" she said, before adjusting her glasses and fixing her sight on the monster emerging through the wall. "I can't just let you die. So I guess we're friends now, alright?"
Thrum, thrum. The beast took slow, deliberate steps until it fully entered the room, revealing its true form: it was a monstrous Nidoking with silvery royal armor.
"Don't… breathe…" the Furret hissed directly into Otto's ear. "Nidoking have really good hearing…"
Otto did as instructed, holding his breath. He inspected the fearsome creature who meandered across the open space at the center of the room between the dozerhammer vehicles. A cape flowed behind him with every step. He held something in his hand which appeared magical. His eyes seemed to glow bright red in the dark.
Otto felt the Furret clutch him tightly for security.
The Nidoking paused, quietly peering at his surroundings and appraising them, casting his red gaze between each isle of shelving.
A Shuppet burst into the room through the same wall through which the Nidoking had come. "Commander," it said quietly. "It appears that…"
"Yes," said the Nidoking in a strong, domineering voice, cutting off the ghost with a wave of his claw. "This is an unacceptable location. There will be a small delay in our plans."
"Understood," said the tiny ghost, "But what of…"
"Fix it," said the Nidoking. "By morning I want storehouse twenty-five looking as though nothing has changed. Understood?"
"Yes, Commander Cepheus," said the Shuppet, sounding exasperated. "Understood. Where will you go now?"
"I will continue appraising the district and return within the hour," the Nidoking said, turning tail and walking away. "I should hope this district will not be entirely useless for our purposes."
"Very well. I will alert Enigma immediately. And I will send a team of ghosts to clean up the mess; the Watcher concentration seems too high for the psychics."
The Shuppet shot away into the wall, and the Nidoking continued walking with a thrum, thrum, thrum, until crossed the length of the warehouse and vanished into the next solid wall.
The Furret released her breath, and Otto did the same.
"He worked for the Master, I just know it," the Furret said, tossing the cape to the side and disregarding any pretense of secrecy. "The Master is scary… I don't want to be captured by Kecleon, but I definitely don't want to be captured by him."
"It was Cepheus, the Starborn," Otto noted, his head reeling with the fear of almost having gotten caught. "One of the most feared of the Master's commanders. I will report –" he eyed the Furret suspiciously, stopping himself before he said anything more.
The master thief sighed and curled up, resting her head upon her tail. "Ah, yeah, I know, you probably work for some big club," she said. "Outlaw chasers, right? And that's why Kecleon hired you to find me."
"You will have to kill me now, while I am vulnerable," Otto guessed.
"Heh! Naaah, I'm not that kind of Pokémon," the Furret said with an awkward laugh. "But I know that if I let you go, you're just going to come back again and try to catch me. Right?"
"Correct," Otto admitted. "My allegiance lies with my team. We were hired to capture you. To fail would be a negative mark on our record, a decrease in our rank. We must succeed, or our reputation will be gravely harmed."
Otto was silent for a moment. He bowed his head in the thief's direction, and there was a glimmer of regret in his eye.
"I am sorry," Otto said plainly.
"Nah, I understand, you go and do what you need to do," the Furret said sadly. But then she perked up, and said assertively, "Hey, y'know what? You go ahead and try to catch me, alright? I dare you! Because if you think the Great Shadow Bandit of Iron Town will be caught easily, even after you've seen my true identity, you're still underestimating me. So, there. It'll be a challenge. For both of us. Deal?"
"What are the terms of the deal?" Otto wondered.
"Well," said the Furret, "Deal is: tonight, we can stay as friends. You stay here and I'll keep you safe from the Watchers and that scary Nidoking if he comes back. Then in the morning I'll take you back to your club or guild or whatever you came from. Then we'll both give each other a headstart and… we'll be enemies again I guess. And you'll get to try to catch me."
"I accept these terms," Otto said. "Come morning, if I am asleep or if I am still unable to fly, you will take me back to the academy campus in Iron Town, in the cliff of the plateau."
"Deal! I'll do that," said the Furret with a smile. "You do your worst, okay? Because I need to get better. I won't always have the cape. It's gonna tear or something. Or get stolen. So one day everyone will know that I'm a… boring old normie with no element powers. But by that time hopefully I'll be good enough to work without it. If I can't run from a pair of shopkeepers and a few birds, I wouldn't deserve to be called the Great Shadow Bandit anyway."
Otto nestled his beak into his new feathers and tried to rest, knowing that what he'd learned that night would likely keep him awake.
"Thank you for saving my life," he said with a kind of frankness which, for some reason, seemed to come easier with his new body. "I… regret that we can be friends for no longer than this night."
"Yeah…" said the Furret, her thoughts drifting away somewhere. "Hey, we could always be secret friends, if you wanted…? Maybe you could be my partner or something? Ever want to be a thief? You're a great flyer, we could make a great team!"
"No, that cannot happen," said Otto. "My allegiance lies with my team, and I would not create a scandal against them."
"Ah, yeah, alright, I get it," she said. "I don't blame you. It's not your fault. Just… try to rest, okay? You'll be safe here, I promise."
She draped the penumbra cape over the Pidgeotto's head, and watched as his form visibly distorted into the black void she usually hid behind.
She adjusted her spectacles and climbed up a nearby series of shelves. She peered at the warehouse wall in the direction she'd seen the Nidoking walk.
"You rest, alright?" she said again, calling to the bird. "I can see through the walls with this thing, I… I can see if the Nidoking is going to come back. He had a lot of magic items. They're very bright white. I don't see him anywhere right now, but I'll make sure he doesn't come back to get us."
"Thank you," Otto muttered.
She climbed between two large crates, nestling herself in the shadows. She felt vulnerable without the cape, so she made sure she couldn't be seen…
"I'll keep watch all night if I have to," she said under her breath, "For both our sakes."
…
Otto couldn't remember what had happened after that, but he was woken in the morning by the sounds of students rushing to their morning classes across the front yard of the Cliffside Academy.