Dastardly Desires (Chapter 18) (Patreon)

"Xander's Logue. Day eight." I begin with a long groan. "Yeah. Apparently one week wasn't the time either. That fucking sucks. I sure hope the doorway opens up soon... cause we've run out of prepared food... on that note, Zinnia has been an absolute godsend with her survival knowledge. Like. Out of everyone in this hellish world, I'm glad she's one of the two people I'm stuck with. Courtney too. We all have our incredible valuable skills that make our survival possible." 

"Hell, bathing has become a bit of an issue. I nearly had my head taken off by some sort of sandile-like little bastard when I went down to the lakefront... caught him, though. Yippee. Got myself a primordial water Sandile." 

"..." 

"Protodile! Fuck! That's good! Hell yeah!" I grin suddenly, a name striking me like a meteor that I am idly praying won't hit the planet to kill the dinosaur-mon. "I'm definitely not going to spend time and effort naming all the new pokemon we've come across, sort of a waste of time that I could be doing other things with, but I'll drop a few names here and there. If I had to make an educated guess, Protodile seems to have a relation to most crocodile Pokémon. Obviously, Sandile, even a child could see that much, but possibly even Totodile given its water typed nature? Regardless. It's bigger and stronger than a normal Sandile. Like thrice the size. Thrice the power. Are ancient pokemon just... stronger? Better? More powerful? Like all fossil pokemon are pretty damn strong, but nothing that could punt kick a Garchomp with practiced ease." 

"Maybe the fossil revivers in our time just fucking suck at their jobs." I note quietly. 

~~Linebreak~~

"What the fuck are those?" Zinnia whispers as the three of us lay atop a mountain. 

We peer through binoculars down at a large group of therapod pokemon. 

Well, partially therapod. 

They have red scales, large intelligent looking yellow eyes, the adults appear to be both quadrupedal and bipedal, with large feathered mohawks... sort of like a rooster 

They are slightly chameleon-like. 

"Cyclizar." I note. 

"Cyclizar?" Zinnia echoes. 

"It's a Paldean pokemon that people typically ride. Think ponyta dragon." I stroke my chin as we look over the group, hidden safely within the bushes atop the hill. "There's some notable factors at play here, however. Firstly... it has pre-evolutions. Something modern day cyclizar has lost." 

"Oh? Evolutions means its stronger, right?" 

"Merely by being prehistoric it's stronger." I answer. 

"Fair. I want one... just like how I want one of your sweet ass capes." Zinnia smirks, eyes straying to the trench coat loosely around my shoulders. 

"Maybe I'll get you a coat... if I can convince Merlin to make you one... won't be until we get back though." I answer. 

"Fuck yeah." She whispers before peeking through her binoculars yet again. "Hm. These guys could prove troublesome. They're meat eaters. Quite intelligent ones at that. I can tell just by the look in their eyes." 

"The older ones can probably manipulate objects with their front limbs as well." I nod as I watch the two largest inflate their throats, letting out loud bellows that sound like roaring motorcycles. 

The two probably males clash together, the ground rumbles, hands locked. 

a battle for dominance of some sort. 

The older of the two- I can tell by the slightly discolored scales and feathers- begins to crush the smaller reptile. 

"Damn... that's brutal." The black haired girl whispers as the smaller reptile begins to grow more and more injured. 

Eventually it reaches a point where it is knocked aside, falling to the ground. 

The winner seems to let out a bellowing call. 

And with that... 

The pack pounces. Violently savaging the loser. 

"But that strength..." She whispers. 

She's right about that. The strength certainly is something of note. 

Even as far away as we are... the force of their clashes are something to behold. 

"That's pseudo Legendary strength at least." I mutter to myself. "Hell, I'd personally compare it to Cynthia's Garchomp." 

Courtney nods along. 

"Champion Cynthia's shark dragon?" Zinnia asks. 

"Yeah... that means we've got a pack of champion quality pokemon close to our home." I sigh. 

"That's... worrying." Courtney frowns. "Maybe they will move on eventually?" 

"I'm mainly worried that grabbing one will result in the pack hunting us for sport." I note. "We'd leave a scent trail. We're honestly lucky that we're down-wind of them." 

"Let's go back to the cave." Zinnia frowns. "I'll get one... eventually..." 

~~Linebreak~~

"Xander's Logue. Day sixteen." 

"Finally managed to take a shower. No soap though. Food has been fine, I guess. The berries we found are tart and a bit sour, but they're fine... unlike anything I've ever seen, though... don't worry too much, I collected some seeds. When- If I get back, I'll probably sell them." I list off blandly, face a little sunken, dark circles under my eyes. "Some little flying thing broke into our cave this morning. This sort of... pink and blue flying reptile thing. It was a bit like an Aerodactyl... just smaller. About the size of an Eevee." 

"Loki almost killed it on impulse, but I managed to strike it with a pokeball. Just another thing we're going to have to name when we get back to civilization... on names, I've finally thought of a name for the big red fully evolved Cyclizar... Koraidon. The names for its first and second stage... those can come later I suppose." 

~~Linebreak~~

I stare up at the rocky ceiling above me, orange lines being drawn between my fingers as I extend my hands outwards and close them together. 

'ah. Hell. This is fucking annoying.' It feels so shitty to be sitting on my hands like this. 

I get that there's nothing that I can do or can be done, but... damn it! I want to research! 

A long breath leaves my lips as little fiery coils are formed in the air, gently surrounding my fingers. 

Sure. If all goes well, no time will be lost, I'll just experience some extra time... but what if that isn't the case? What if the cave opens in a year and an entire year has passed? 

What if an entire year is lost? Or more? What if decades are lost and we missed the meteor striking the planet? 

I can only pray that isn't the case... 

"Yo." 

I flinch as Zinna casually crawls through the tunnel nearby, her red eyes locked onto my hands. 

"Ayo?!" She gasps. 

I can see her eyes glint as I snuff out of the magic. 

She quickly crawls over, eyes flicking from my face to my clenched fist, a feral grin crossing her lips. "So. Xander... care to explain?" 

"I learned from my Lotad." 

"That shit can be LEARNED?!" She hisses, a deep hint of desire in her eyes. 

"Color me intrigued." A smirk works its way onto her lips. "May I?" 

"..." 

"If... you do it out of sight of the rotom, I don't see why not." I whisper. "They aren't mine. They are the school's... and I don't entirely feel too keen on showing the world how to teleport at will." 

My face falls slightly, a cautious frown appearing on my lips. "But you owe me." 

"Hmmmm." She hums after a moment, seemingly deeply thinking for a long moment. 

She clenches her fist, a small grin working its way onto her lips as she shakes her hand back and forth in a rhythmic manner. "Wanna handie in exchange?" 

I give her a half lidded stare. "Not really the time or place." 

"Whaaat. Am I not pretty or something?" She frowns, a small pout appearing on her lips. 

"Do you normally offer handjobs to people in exchange for services?" 

"Nope. Only you." She shrugs. "I'm a firm believer in fate!"  

"Fate?" I echo. "That's... whatever." 

"You need to have a little more imagination, Xander." The girl hums. "I mean, here we are, the last Draconid and the- possibly- last Welsh, both trying to stop the destruction of our world. Both just so happen to meet up after months of no contact, then we just so happen to get stranded millions of years in the past as the first humans to exist? Such things don't happen normally. Clearly fate is pushing us together." 

"..." 

"I- That is... fair. But, that is just history and circumstance... I would personally say that I have more in common with Courtney." 

"Ah. Psychic girl... she science-y too?" The black haired girl questions. 

"Yes?" 

She falls silent, the corners of her mouth tugging down slightly as she shifts slightly, taking a seat beside me. 

"So... does she know about your whole..." She gestures vaguely to me. "Deal?" 

"No." I shake my head. "And the rotoms aren't my own... so, they'll tattle to the school." 

"Ah. I see. Alright. speaking on that. How has it been going? Anything of use?" 

"Some." I admit. 

"Anything I'd be interested in?" 

"A few. Like I said, I found half of something that I'm trying to pair. The main and most confusing part is... well, that the additional part must be black." 

"Must be black?" She echoes. "That's... a little weird. But there's not that many black things in the world, right?" 

"Well, most things can be black. It's just a very low chance... speaking of which, have you got an electric type yet?" 

"nnnnope. There's no dragon electric types out there... sadly." 

"Well, the dragon of ideals is." 

"Wait... so you've got it?" She questions. 

"No. I don't." I shake my head. "Though... it would probably 'breed' really well with it." 

"Huh." She hums.  

We sit in silence, eventually I return to messing with my magic. 

"So. Why didn't you ever call?" I question. 

"Eh. There was no need. I hadn't found anything interesting yet." She shrugs. "I was planning on calling at the end of the year, honestly, to see if you made any progress." 

"..." 

"Also I might not have bought a phone." 

I let out a long sigh. 

"In my defense, making a Salamence strong enough to make champions weep with envy takes a lot of money. I'm talking high quality cuts of meat. Vitamins and minerals, and near endless specialized training equipment that I had to more or less commission." 

"Your Shelgon evolved?" 

"Well... not yet." The girl mutters. "But... it's close! I can feel it! Then I can make use of the Salamencite." 

I not along slowly, closing my eyes. "Well. One of two things has happened. The first, we reappear exactly when we left, in which case we are getting free weeks of extra training." 

"Or. Time is linear." The girl hums. "In which case... we have been missing for these weeks." 

"..." 

"So." She begins. "We should be making the most of this time. Hell, we should already be anyways." 

I tilt my head slightly. "Do you think we could find legendary pokemon to take back with us?" 

The girl pauses, blinking slowly. "Huh. Well... I sort of doubt it. Pokemon here are far stronger than in our time." 

"Allow me to rephrase that... do you think we could stalk a legendary long enough for it to get into a fight with another legendary." 

She blinks a small grin crossing her lips. "Maybe~" 

~~Linebreak~~

"Xander's Logue. Day thirty two." 

A tired looking boy stares into the camera, dark circles are under his eyes, hair messy and slightly dirty, as is his clothes. "Holy fuck I'm going crazy. Just losing my mind over here. What the hell?! A month?! Not even a month is enough?! I'm starting to worry that the cave will never open back up!" 

"Rotom... what are the odds that you stay alive and sapient for the next like... couple million years? And giving this data to someone?" He asks, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Mainly someone who could stop me from going into that fucking cave?" 

"Less than one percent." The camera itself seems to supply, causing the boy to let out a self loathing sigh. 

"Well. If we can't go back. See if you can manage, cause at that point we're probably going to be the origin of humanity and it'd fucking suck for nobody to remember us." 

~~Linebreak~~

My powers are getting stronger.  

At this point, I care very little about doing it in front of either Courtney or Zinnia. Just the rotoms, who announce themselves before they enter rooms. 

I sit side by side with the girls on what is basically a proto-sofa. A tent's canvass filled with soft plant and moss atop a chair-shaped slab of rock. 

"So... I'm sort of losing hope." I eventually speak. 

"Mn." Courtney agrees with a dull hum. 

"Don't be like that, Xander! Hope! You have got to have hope! After all, we need to stop Grand Meteor Delta! And if we don't, who will?" 

"The government?" I suggest. 

"I'm not a big fan of the government." She replies without a second of hesitation. 

I stare for a long moment, then shake my head with a small sigh. 

There's nothing out here. 

No tribes of humans. No remains of people shunted through time, no hint that we aren't the first people to ever arrive here. 

The first people to exist. 

Regardless of losing hope of going back, we have sort of... rebounded... in a word. 

Instead of fighting tooth and nail to gather food, we have more than enough to survive and have begun to create a food storage in case there's ever a scarce month in the future. 

"Speaking on Grand Meteor Delta..." Courtney begins slowly. "Are you... are you sure it is going to strike the planet?" 

"Positive." Zinnia nods. 

"I'm normally not one to believe in prophecy and fate but let me put it this way. Imagine for a moment, that a child comes up to you and says 'A Salamence is going to destroy this school at this day at this exact time, killing eight and maiming twenty... at first, you wave it off, thinking of it as nothing. But. Would you not start paying attention when a shelgon starts to walk by that school on the same day five minutes before the child said the attack would happen?" 

"Because let's look at this objectively. Zinnia. From a tribe of people not well versed in technology somehow knew that a giant meteor will strike in her lifetime. How long has the Draconid tribe existed, exactly?" 

"About a thousand years." The black haired girl answers. "Also, it was less 'sometime in my lifetime' and more 'sometime in the next ten years of this period of time'. 

"So they, one thousand years ago, somehow predicted that a meteor capable of destroying the planet would have a close pass by our planet... now, Grand Meteor Delta is supposed to miss us... and it will... provided something doesn't interfere." 

"Something?" Courtney echoes. "Like... an alien pokemon?" 

"More getting hit by a second asteroid." I shrug. "Regardless, can you see why I am taking this seriously?" 

"I suppose." She nods. "It just seems so far-fetched." 

"We got sent literally millions of years to the past." 

"..." 

"Point." She blinks. "But how are we going to save the planet? Even if we go back?" 

"Zinna plans to go bother Rayquaza, a legendary pokemon, until it helps us." I shrug. 

"Wouldn't- wouldn't it just kill you?" 

"Pshhh nah." The tribal girl waves off. "That's ridiculous!" 

"It might." I agree. 

The red eyed girl pouts slightly, shoulders sagging. "Well, then I should learn your weird mumbo jumbo so I don't die, hm?" 

~~Linebreak~~

I duck back away from the snapping jaws of a large feathered reptile. 

A raptor of some sort. 

Something about it strikes me as familiar. 

Its teeth seem to glow as dark type energy snaps shut, my trench coat narrowly pulling me out of the way as I lift off the ground. 

A orange energy forms between my fingertips as I swing my arm backwards, the flickering power, looking similar to embers, strikes forwards, leaving a small arc in the air as it creates a small loop. 

BANG 

The raptor lets out a shriek, exposed skin slightly reddening from the whip of energy that stripes it in the face. 

I turn with a wave of my hand I shoot out large glowing sigils that hang in the air. 

Zinnia rushes forwards, stepping off each, a large spear in one hand, held at her side, a pokeball in the other. 

Below her shelgon crashes into one of the raptor pokemon, knocking it aside. 

"One for the road!" She calls out, swinging the pokeball downwards, it spins sort of like a baseball before striking one of the smaller raptors. Seeming to be a pre-evolution of the one I just whipped. "AND ONE FOR DINNER!"  

She dives downwards taking the spear in both hands as the raptor is sucked up into the pokeball, her bone spear stabs deep into the neck of one of the adults, driving it into the ground. Her grin is near feral as I swoop down beside her. 

I do a few motions with my hands, creating a large body-sized glyph in front of me. 

It stops the pounce of one of the raptors dead in its tracks, I can see its large nails dig into barrier. 

I roll my shoulders, causing the coat around my shoulders to shoot back and wrap around Zinna's. 

She pivots on a dime, assisted by my coat of levitation, tearing her spear from the neck of her downed prey. 

She spirals through the air above me as I swing a hand outwards, causing the barrier to abruptly move backwards and stop, catapulting the dinosaur a fair distance away where Zinnia drops down on it, skewering it through the top of the head. "And one for the pantry!" 

A large purple beam shoots just past me, crashing into another of the raptors, knocking it aside. 

"Altaaariiiiaaa!" The cause of the beam chirps as it flutters up above. 

A small magic circle appears around my hand as I rotate my other hand in a swirling motion around it, gazing up to a flock of the smaller birds leaping from nearby trees and gliding in our general direction. 

I swing my hand out, causing a violent gale to rocket towards them. 

They are knocked out of the air with small shrieks, their wings caught by the sudden buffeting force as they are blown away. 

"BEHIND!" Zinnia shouts. 

I turn on a dime, sigils appearing in hand. 

I deflect the slashing claw with a shower of sparks, shoving my hand forwards into the beast's open maw. 

My sigil holds its mouth open as it slashes at me with its claws. 

My other hand comes back around as I jab my fingertips towards its neck, the magic circle atop my other hand digging into its throat, the force of my punch knocking it back. 

It writhes on the floor as Zinnia swoops by stabbing it in the back of the head. 

Now... it is quiet. 

A long breath leaves my lips, my shoulders shaking slightly as we both catch our breath, the tribal girl floating about a foot off the ground thanks to my cloak. 

It sits her down and quickly returns to my shoulders once more. 

The pack seems to realize after the fourth adult died that we are not easy prey and has promptly retreated. 

"Damn. These cunning assholes are so annoying." The girl lowly growls. 

"Indeed." I nod along, gazing to the pokeball sitting in the grass a short distance away. "The main problem was how agile they were... But... I think their luck has finally run its course." 

"Could you?" I ask, glancing at my shoulder. 

The trench coat blasts forwards, scooping up the ball and depositing it into my hand. 

We have been trying to catch one of those guys for the past week. 

They're fairly hard to track down. 

Not too large. Maybe about four feet tall and eight or so long. 

Fast. 

Smart. 

I push the button, causing a streak of red to shoot out. 

A smirk appears on my lips as one of the pre-evolution raptors appears. 

Before it can get its bearings, I quickly return it and slip the ball into my bag retrieving a large golden item that looks a little similar to brass knuckles. "Alright. Let's get this stuff back home." 

"Shelly, Altair!" Zinna calls out, causing the large orb-like pokemon to waddle over and the sentient cloud to swoop down. 

She pets the Shelgon, before standing and gently stroking the head of the Altaira. "You both did soooo good!" 

I drag the deceased raptors into a pile with Zinnia's assistance, then I close my eyes, holding out a hand. 

I slowly swing my arm in a circular motion, focusing deeply. 

Spark-Spark 

'Picture it...' 

Chrzzz 

'come on... almost...' 

Fshhhhh 

A swirling vortex appears in the floor, the four corpses falling into it. 

"Come on!" I call out. 

Zinnia returns the two pokemon as I hop forwards into the vortex. 

I fall briefly, landing with a crouch, nearly falling atop the bodies. 

I barely catch Zinnia in a bridal carry as the portal drifts shut, I likely would have fallen if not for Mr. Cloak. 

He's such a good wingman. 

"Hey~" she smirks, arms coming around my shoulders. 

"Hey." I reply. 

"Good work out there, magic man." She continues, smirk growing into a full-blown smile. "Honestly, out of anyone to be stuck with, I'm sort of glad it's you and psychic girl." 

"I feel the same." I smirk, slowly stepping over the dinosaur pokemon and gently setting the girl's feet back on the ground. 

"Eevee!" Loki calls out as he scampers into the room. 

"Hello, Loki." I greet as the small fox leaps up at me. 

I catch him before his skull collides with my own, the little brat licking my cheek. "Yes, yes, I missed you too... has home been safe?" 

"Eevee!" He cries. 

"That so? Good. With you and Merlin here I have less to worry about." 

"You think Psychic girl's made any progress?" Zinnia asks. 

"Eh." I mutter. "Maybe? Let's go check." 

We walk through our little cavern, leaving our hunted prey for a moment. 

We'll be forced to skin and clean it soon enough. 

"We're back!" I call out into the cave system as we step into a larger room. 

Courtney glances up, her hoodie hanging loosely off her shoulders, the ends slightly frayed. "Welcome back." 

She is standing over a large stone table, metal pick in hand. 

On the table itself is a few large indents that she herself has carved. 

There are little bits of moss, little pools of water, and large carved rocks sat here and there. 

A map. 

"Any progress?" I ask. 

"Not as much as we'd hope." She shakes her head. "Your lotad has been extra helpful, allowing me to observe the landscape from above, and that has helped me finish the map of the immediate area. that has been finished, but there's no progress on our next goal." 

The goal she is talking about is an important one... 

She is trying to see if there were any sort of evolution stone which has been lost over the past couple millions of years. 

There's also the fact that as a Geologist, she's probably very interested in seeing what the planet looks like. 

Unova is totally unrecognizable from what I've seen. 

But, I mean, that's to be expected. Continental drift and all that. 

The stone map is sort of what we are going to be using to more or less determine the species and territories around here. 

Not very accurate, but still vaguely useful. 

"I'm fairly certain we found the territory for those feathered freaks." 

"The red ones?" 

"No. The smaller purple ones." 

"Ah. Where?" 

I point to a spot on the table. "About here." 

"I see... I'll put something to mark it soon." 

"Take your time. Now, Zinnia and I are going to go prepare dinner. Good luck." 

"You too." The girl calls out.